Alex Bregman could not stop smiling as he rounded third base and headed home for the third time Monday night at Wrigley Field. The home run came on a looping pitch from Brewers position player Andrew Vaughn, but the drive into the left-field bleachers counted just the same.
Bregman’s eighth-inning blast in the Cubs’ 17-3 rout of Milwaukee capped a record-setting night for Chicago’s power offense. The North Siders hit a franchise-record nine home runs in one game and set a National League record with 62 homers in August.
“It’s pretty awesome,”
Bregman led the offensive charge with three home runs for the second three-homer game of his career. Both performances came within a few weeks of each other. Tyrone Taylor and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, while Seiya Suzuki and Bregman did the same in the fourth. Carson Kelly, Matt Shaw and Michael Conforto also homered.
Cubs make statement in NL Central race
The emphatic victory came as the NL Wild Card-leading Cubs attempt to close the gap on Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Brewers still hold a seven-game lead over Chicago, but the teams are playing seven games against each other over a 10-day stretch, giving the Cubs an opportunity to make the division race more competitive.
“You could kind of feel their energy,”
Cubs starter Clay Holmes said after throwing six shutout innings.
“After a couple series that we lost, you could tell that the position-player group really wanted to come out strong. And you can feel that. To be able to put a zero up there in the first and kind of let them do their thing was nice.”
Even Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hit five home runs over the previous two games, did not go deep in the victory. Five of Chicago’s homers came against Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison. Vaughn, primarily a first baseman, allowed the final three home runs while covering the last two innings of Milwaukee’s blowout loss.
“The position-player stuff gets a little ridiculous at the end there, honestly,”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
“That’s great we set a record. And the guys aren’t going to stop hitting. Guys are not going to stop hitting. They’re going to take advantage of it, and they should. They absolutely should. We’ll take it.”
Cubs set multiple MLB and franchise records
Chicago’s historic power surge produced an extraordinary list of statistical achievements:
- Bregman also hit three home runs on Aug. 12. Crow-Armstrong and Dansby Swanson had three-homer games on Saturday and July 1, respectively. The Cubs joined the 2001 Brewers, 1956 Reds and 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers as the only teams in MLB history with four individual three-homer games in one season.
- Bregman joined Sammy Sosa, who did it three times in 2001, Dave Kingman, who did it twice in 1979, and Aramis Ramirez, who did it twice in 2004, as the only Cubs players since at least 1900 with multiple three-homer games in one season. Bregman and Sosa, in August 2001, are the only players in Cubs history with multiple three-homer games in one calendar month.
- The Cubs, the 2022 Pirates and the 2020 Braves are the only teams to record three individual three-homer games in one calendar month. Other players with multiple three-homer games in a month include Adam Duvall, Carlos Delgado, Doug DeCinces, Willie Stargell and Johnny Mize.
- Chicago’s nine home runs set a single-game franchise record, surpassing the eight-homer performances on July 1 this season and July 4, 2025. The total also tied for the second-most home runs in a game in MLB history. The Blue Jays hold the record after hitting 10 home runs on Sept. 14, 1987.
- The Cubs’ 62 home runs in August surpassed the 2023 Braves’ 61 home runs in June for the National League record for a calendar month. Only the 2019 Yankees, with 74 home runs in August, have hit more in a calendar month.
- Crow-Armstrong hit 15 home runs and Bregman hit 12 in August, making them only the third pair of teammates to hit at least 12 home runs in the same calendar month. They joined Iván Rodríguez and Rafael Palmeiro, who did it for Texas in August 1999, and Yankees legends Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, who did it in July 1961 and June 1960.
- The Cubs joined the 2025 Yankees, 2019 Twins and 2005 Rangers as the only teams in MLB history to have two games in one season featuring at least eight home runs.
The Cubs’ record-setting month left Bregman impressed with the consistency of the lineup.
“It was a good month, just driving the baseball,”
Bregman said.
“The quality of the at-bat in the second half, it’s been super consistent up and down the lineup. And it’s been tough on opposing teams.”
