CHICAGO — Sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers and watching Pete-Crow Armstrong outduel Shohei Ohtani in their MVP showdown seemed like the perfect way to end an exhilarating homestand for the Chicago Cubs.

But the Cubs instead were forced to return to Wrigley Field on Thursday for a makeup game against the Toronto Blue Jays, and for most of the afternoon the electricity of the last week seemed missing with the New York Yankees and Dodgers — and all their stars — gone.

The Cubs were clueless against Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease, who allowed two hits in seven shutout innings, and a loss to the underachieving Jays would’ve felt like adding an extra chapter to “The Great Gatsby.”

But then everything changed on a dime, and a manic Cubs season went off the rails again.

Alex Bregman’s two-out, two-strike, two-run home run into the wind off closer Louis Varland tied the game in the ninth, and the Cubs won 3-2 in 11 innings when Crow-Armstrong scored from second after stealing third and coming home on a throwing error by catcher Brandon Valenzuela.

“That’s what I’ve been wanting to add to my team the last few years,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That’s my style of play, but I guess we’re all getting to see me do a little bit of everything more and more often now.”

It was another wild chapter in a drama-filled season for the Cubs, who won their fourth straight and improved to 67-49 with their 11th walk-off win. They’re now a season-high 18 games over .500.

“We’re down to our last hitter and one last out and the wind is blowing in and Alex gets it out — incredible,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That was the big swing, and then from then it’s the extra-inning madness, the craziness of extra innings.”

Cease, the former Cubs prospect who signed a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Blue Jays in November, struck out 10 and was dominant from the outset. Six of his strikeouts were called, including two by Crow-Armstrong on a changeu-p and slider.

But Crow-Armstrong singled off Varland to start the ninth and was standing on second when Bregman took a 1-2 knuckle-curve and deposited it off the wall and into the basket near the yellow 358-foot marker near the foul pole. The 368-foot shot off Varland — who entered 24 for 24 in save situations this season — was almost the bare minimum necessary to leave the yard.

Bregman admitted he was thinking home run and was “fortunate enough to sneak that one out.”

He hit a similar drive to left in the seventh that wound up being caught. Did Bregman think this one would make it out?

“I thought it should be,” he said with a laugh. “But you never know here.”

Bregman had one of the two hits off Cease on a day when the Cubs offense was comatose for long stretches.

“That’s who Alex Bregman is,” Crow-Armstrong said. “He’s shown people that he’s built for those moments. … That’s where he belongs and where he thrives.”

Counsell said Bregman “got the best swings off Cease,” and his home run off Varland was game-changing.

“That’s a huge hit,” he said. “That means everything. That’s one that takes an L off the board and gives you a W.”

The Cubs had a chance to win in the 10th when Carson Kelly lined a shot over second base with runners on second and third and two out, but Ernie Clement made a sensational leaping catch to send it to the 11th inning. Crow-Armstrong’s single to center leading off the 11th sent Kelly, the ghost runner, home from second. But Kelly was barely thrown out at the plate, keeping the Jays alive for a brief moment.

After an intentional walk to Seiya Suzuki, Crow-Armstrong took off for third and came around when the throw from Valenzuela glanced off Josh Smith’s glove and into short left field. Crow-Armstrong didn’t hesitate, tossing his helmet before he waltzed home, turning the scene into a mosh pit of celebrating Cubs in front of 39,476 delirious fans.

“This group has a lot of talent, a great team on paper,” starter David Peterson said. “But it’s what the guys bring every single day, the work ethic, the competitiveness, the will to win and the confidence in the group.”

The Cubs faced four of the league’s top starters in the last six days in the Yankees’ Max Fried and Gerrit Cole, the Dodgers’ Tarik Skubal and Cease.

They managed only four runs off those starters in 24 1/3 combined innings, striking out 28 times, but managed to win three of the four games.

“We got tested against some great teams this homestand, some really good players,” Counsell said. “We faced Fried, Cole, Skubal, Cease … that’s a pretty good gauntlet of pitchers we faced.”

That’s the kind of pitching they’re going to see if they make it into the postseason, which seems likely with a 33-15 mark since June 11, the best record in the National League and second-best mark in the majors.

After the Yankees series, the trade-deadline additions, the Skubal game, the PCA-Ohtani swing-off, the sweep of the Dodgers and then the last-gasp comeback against the Jays in the rescheduled game, the Cubs took a deep breath and headed to Kansas City, Mo., for the start of a six-game trip.

“Kind of a wild homestand towards the end of it,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And it was supposed to be an off day. Just relief that we got a W there. Pretty rare you see a down-to-your-last-strike, game-tying homer. So that was pretty sick in itself.”

“Sick” is the thematic motif of the Cubs season, and there is no cure in sight.

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