Storms rolled through Chicago right around first pitch, the sort of forecast that can turn a start into an early bullpen scramble before a single ball is even put in play. By the time the skies cleared, Wrigley had a very different game on its hands than the one either side drew up.
Chicago wasted no time making it lopsided. Four runs in the first, two more in the second, and by the time the Cubs tacked on three in the fourth, Holmes was working with all the cushion a starter could ask for. Milwaukee finally got on the board in the seventh, but a two-spot and a solo run over the final three innings was never going to put a dent in a lead like that.
The final tally read 17 runs on 20 hits with zero Chicago errors — a night where practically every swing that started finished, and Milwaukee's already-stretched bullpen had nowhere to hide once the game got away from Harrison and company.
It's the kind of night Chicago needed after manager Craig Counsell used the word "funk" to describe his club's recent stretch — a reminder of what this lineup can do when it clicks, Swanson and Ramirez both out of it or not. For a Brewers team still holding baseball's best record, it's a blip they can probably afford, but the injury list keeps growing at an inconvenient time of year.
Whether Monday marks the start of something for Chicago or just one very loud night against a shorthanded Milwaukee bullpen, it said plenty about where both rosters stand as the calendar turns to September.