The crazy series started with the news that Sammy Sosa, one of the greatest home run hitters in Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball history, was coming back to Wrigley Field.
Then, in his honor, the Cubs and Seattle Mariners went out and used humid and windy conditions to rack up 21 home runs — to match Sosa’s jersey number with the Cubs — in three games.
Nine of those blasts came Sunday in the Mariners’ 14-6 win over the Cubs in front of a sweltering Wrigley Field crowd of 36,185 on a 92-degree day.
The wind hasn’t blown out too much this year, but this weekend it was a free-for-all as the Cubs (46-31) dropped two of three to the Mariners (39-37) and finished the homestand 5-4.
After the second game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell said the combination of the sun, heat and wind, “made it feel like a different game, almost.
“It was baseball, but it was different.”
Here are three takeaways from the “different” weekend of baseball.
1. The wind was kind — and cruel.
For most of the hitters, the wind was a windfall as six players had multi-homer games.
The Mariners’ Cal Raleigh had four home runs in the series to jack his MLB-leading total up to 31, which is the most by a catcher prior to an All-Star break.
Cubs’ leadoff hitter Ian Happ had three home runs and opened Friday’s and Saturday’s games with first-inning solo shots to get the team off on the right foot.
Seiya Suzuki belted a pair on Sunday, giving him 20 on the year, a day after teammate Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 21st.
It’s the fastest that two Cubs hitters bashed 20 or more homers. They did it in 77 games, beating out the duo of Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, who did it in 80 games in 2016.
Yes, the World Series year.
Backup catcher Reese McGuire played in two of the three games of the Mariners series and homered in each game, the first time in his career with a home run in back-to-back games.
The wind, however, was cruel to fielders.
Crow-Armstrong was the victim of a few misjudgments in center field on Saturday and even a couple of balls that he caught were adventures.
But he also tallied a double when just about everyone in the ballpark thought his third-inning fly ball was going to land in the stands, only to have the wind push it into left field.
On Sunday, Suzuki started in right field and made two errors, one of which was a misjudgment on a fly ball near the wall.
“They were tough conditions,” Suzuki said through an interpreter. “On a day like this, everyone knew that the wind was blowing out and I tried to be extra careful to catch the ball, but it is what it is.
“I tried to make it up to the team (with the home runs).”
2. A hot series in St. Louis is coming up.
The Cubs leave the heat and humidity of Chicago to play in the heat and humidity of St. Louis for four games starting Monday against their rivals.
AccuWeather predicts the game-time temperature of Monday’s game in the Arch City will be 95 degrees.
Counsell said he will continue to monitor his players.
“We don’t have any secrets,” he said. “You worry about the catcher the most and the pitcher. Make sure they get some downtime in the shade.”
It is the first time the division rivals will meet this season. The Cubs lead the third-place Cardinals by 4 1/2 games in the National League Central standings and the Cardinals want to chop that down.
Last year, the Cardinals had a 7-6 season series edge over the Cubs.
The Cubs announced Ben Brown will start Monday and Jameson Taillon will start Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are TBA and Shota Imanaga is likely to come off the injured list and pitch in one of those games.
“He’s going to start and we have a pretty good idea when, but there are a couple of things we want to check just to make sure,” Counsell said of Imanaga.
Wednesday would be Matthew Boyd’s turn in the rotation. He caught a 104.7 mph comebacker on Friday but injured his shoulder on the play. He threw on Sunday.
“So far, good news,” Counsell said of Boyd.
3. The bullpen is struggling again.
After a rough start to the season, there was a span from mid-May to mid-June when the Cubs’ bullpen was razor sharp, posting an MLB-best 0.90 ERA.
Against the Mariners, though, the ’pen gave up 15 earned runs in 11 innings for a 12.27 ERA.
Even seemingly untouchable Chris Flexen gave up two earned runs on Sunday. He had gone into the game not allowing an earned run in 21 1/3 innings before getting roughed up.
Perhaps it’s just a three-game anomaly and the bullpen pitchers can get back to their previous success sooner rather than later.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.