The Fourth of July might not have started great for the Chicago Cubs considering the news that Jameson Taillon would be on the shelf for a while with his calf injury, but it sure ended well.
The Cubs destroyed their archrival St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 11-3, getting the holiday weekend going in the right direction on the field.
Chicago was powered by the long ball, with eight being blasted over the fence to set a franchise record, something that is remarkable considering many years they have existed.
Based on this historic performance, there are plenty of stories to discuss coming out of a game like this. However, the one that might be the hardest to comprehend is what Michael Busch did.
The slugging first baseman hit three homers, which was one more than the two that Pete Crow-Armstrong hit.
But the three blasts in the same game isn't even the most notable thing about that feat; it's the fact that he is now the third Cubs player to ever hit three homers in the same game against the Cardinals, with all three of those instances now strangely coming on the Fourth of July.
That's beyond remarkable.
That's just plain whacky.
Not only has three homers in a game for a single Chicago player against St. Louis only happened three times, but the fact that all of them have come on the same day on the calendar is absurd.
It's also pretty interesting that it was Busch who etched his name into this history.
Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker have garnered a lot of the attention this season, with Seiya Suzuki also being in the spotlight based on him leading the league in RBI.
However, Busch has quietly put together a strong year with a .288/.373/.546 slash line, 17 homers and 55 RBI through 82 games, which would shatter his career highs in all of those categories.
If he can continue that production alongside the rest of his teammates for the remainder of the year, the Cubs are going to be hard to stop, especially if they hit the long ball the way they did on Friday.
