If you were late to the Chicago Cubs' traditional Friday matinee last week, you're not alone. The Cubs' offense took a while to get there too, but it all worked out at the end. With the Cubs trailing 4-2, Willson Contreras led off the ninth with a double, and RBI singles from Chris Coghlan and Addison Russell tied the score. Aroldis Chapman then struck out the side in the 10th before Miguel Montero launched Blaine Boyer's third pitch into the front row of Section 303. It was only the Cubs' second walk-off homer this year, and Montero's second with the Cubs. He is the first Cubs batter to hit two walk-off homers against Milwaukee (Brewers or Braves); he had one in eight seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
That was the only Cubs win in the series, however; on Saturday they dropped an 11-3 decision despite an early 3-0 lead. It was the first time this season that the Cubs scored three runs in the first inning and none the rest of the game; they had also won their last 18 games with a three-run first (or more).
The Cubs rallied for a 5-2 win in Monday's series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, with four of those runs scoring on late homers. It was the first time the Cubs hit three home runs from the seventh inning on in more than two years, and the first time they've done it at Wrigley since 2008.
Jon Lester's second-inning double drove in the Cubs' first run in Tuesday's game, and he walked and scored in his second plate appearance. He thus became the first Cubs pitcher to have a walk and any extra-base hit in the same game since Randy Wells in 2009. The double was Lester's third of the year and sixth RBI; combined with Jake Arrieta and Jason Hammel, it's just the second time in 60 years that three Cubs pitchers have each had three extra-base hits and six RBIs in a season. Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano and Mark Prior did it in 2003; before that it hadn't happened since 1954.
The Cubs finished the sweep Wednesday with a 15-hit attack led by Montero, Ben Zobrist and Javier Baez. Each of them had three hits, all singles; they are the first trio of Cubs to pull that off since 2011. However, each of them also managed to drive in at least one run, and the Cubs hadn't done that in 45 years. The last three Cubs players to each have three hits and an RBI, without an extra-base hit in the bunch, were Glenn Beckert, Brock Davis and Billy Williams in a 12-0 shutout of the Cardinals on June 25, 1971.
The series marked the Cubs' third series sweep of the Reds this season; their 13-3 record against Cincinnati (still with one series to play) is the best since they won 21 of 22 in their last World Series season, in 1945.
Record watch: The sweep in Cincinnati put the Cubs at 97-55 on the season, matching their win total from 2015. They are the first team with back-to-back 97-win seasons since the Phillies of 2010 and 2011, and it's the first time the Cubs have tallied 194 victories in consecutive seasons since a hundred years before that. They followed up their World Series appearance in 1910 (104-50) with a 92-62 campaign in 1911.