CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs hit a franchise-record nine home runs in a 17-3 rout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, Aug. 31, 2026, finishing a 62-homer August that set a club record for any month and trailed only the 2019 Yankees' 74 in August of that year.

Third baseman Alex Bregman hit three of the nine, his second three-homer game of the month after none in his first 1,342 major-league games. ESPN Research said he is the seventh player with multiple three-homer games in a single month and the first since Adam Duvall in September 2020.

"First two ever, so for sure, we'll definitely remember it," Bregman said after the win, ESPN reported.

Brewers starter Kyle Harrison allowed five home runs. First baseman Andrew Vaughn, pitching the seventh and eighth, allowed three more, including Bregman's last, along with seven runs, nine hits, and three walks. Manager Craig Counsell said of Harrison, "You make someone uncomfortable right away and you don't let them settle in." Of the position-player innings: "The position player stuff, it gets a little ridiculous at the end there, honestly."

Bregman went further on the rulebook. "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."

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said his club was "not playing for run differential" with a young pitching staff. The loss cut Milwaukee's National League Central lead to seven games in Game 1 of a four-game set at Wrigley Field.

MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong had a quiet night but finished August with 14 home runs. Bregman had 12. ESPN said they became the third pair of teammates in MLB history to each hit 12 or more home runs in a calendar month, joining Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (twice) and Rafael Palmeiro and Iván Rodríguez. The Cubs lead the majors in home runs hit and are tied for the most allowed.

Nine balls cleared the ivy. The pitching ledger, and Bregman's CBA aside, are the only policy questions in the box score.

Sources