Cubs add nine more HRs in rout of Brewers to cap record month
CHICAGO --The Chicago Cubs hit a franchise-record nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night in a fitting finish to a torrid August for the North Siders.
Monday's home run total included three by third baseman Alex Bregman; it was his second three-homer game of the month after going his entire career without hitting three in a single game.
"First two ever, so for sure, we'll definitely remember it," Bregman said after the Cubs' 17-3 drubbing of the division-leading Brewers.
The home run barrage also helped set a franchise record for a calendar month. The Cubs hit 62 home runs in August, second only to the 2019 Yankees, who hit 74 in August of that year.
Brewers starter Kyle Harrison gave up five home runs while first baseman Andrew Vaughn, pitching the seventh and eighth innings, gave up three, including Bregman's final one.
"You make someone uncomfortable right away and you don't let them settle in," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Harrison. "The position player stuff, it gets a little ridiculous at the end there, honestly."
Bregman added: "I don't know how much longer they'll let that happen. We'll see what happens here at the CBA, but I feel like it's kind of a competitive advantage to get into a team's bullpen early in the season or early in the series. It's above my pay grade to talk about that."
The teams were playing Game 1 of a four-game series with the Brewers' lead in the division cut to seven games after Monday's loss. Using Vaughn for two innings helped make the final score look silly as he gave up seven runs on nine hits and three walks.
"We're not playing for run differential," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "We're playing to try and win as many games as we can. We've had a really young pitching staff all year. There is going to be days like this."
The Cubs took advantage on a day when MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong had a quiet game. He finished the month with 14 home runs while Bregman hit 12. They became the third different pair of teammates in MLB history to each hit 12 or more home runs in a calendar month, joining Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, who did it twice, along with Rafael Palmeiro and Iván Rodríguez.
"It was a good month and obviously driving the baseball up and down the lineup," Bregman said. "I think just the quality of at-bat in the second half, it's been super consistent up and down the lineup and it's been tough on opposing teams."
The Cubs now have the distinction of hitting the most home runs in MLB while being tied for the most allowed.
And after a slow start to the season, while playing his first 1,342 career games without a three-homer night, Bregman has two in his last 18 games. He's the seventh player in history with multiple three-homer games in a month and the first since Adam Duvall in September 2020.
"He is relentless in his preparation and in his daily grind," Counsell said. "He just is relentless. This is who he is."
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.br/]
