With 36 runs total in consecutive games, it’s beginning to look like 1897 all over again for the Chicago Cubs offense

These are not your father’s Chicago Cubs or even your grandfather’s or great-grandfather’s Cubs.

But in scoring 36 runs in back-to-back wins over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field, they very well might be your great-great-great grandfather’s Cubs, who were then nicknamed the Colts.

The Cubs hit seven home runs in a 20-9 win Tuesday and added five more in a 16-6 romp Wednesday. According to ESPN Stats, the last time the franchise scored at least 36 runs in consecutive games was in 1897, when the visiting Colts lost 7-2 to the Louisville Colonels on June 28 and rebounded for a 36-7 win June 29 — scoring 38 total runs in a two-game stretch.

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The Colts also lost 8-7 to the Colonels the next day, giving them 43 runs in that particular two-game stretch. Either set works, thanks to that wacky 36-run game.

The Chicago Tribune’s account of the 36-run performance mirrored the Cubs’ 16-6 win over the Redson Wednesday. Like the Reds, the Colonels had inept pitching and could not catch the ball, committing 10 errors.

Colts manager Cap Anson, the 19th century predecessor to David Ross, also played first in the game and scored four runs. The RBI had not yet been invented.

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“Colts Make a Record,” read the Tribune headline, followed by a subhead: “Game is a Farce and Everybody Has a Good Time Except the Colonels, Who Played a Minor Part — Anson’s Men Find the Hits They Lost Somewhere Early in the Season and Use Them All Up at Once — Chase One Another Around the Bases.”

The Tribune reported that the Colts were “writhing under ridicule” after the previous day’s loss and “wreaked a fearful vengeance upon” the Colonels.

“During the game, all records for league baseball were smashed to smithereens,” the report said, adding the offensive assault on the pitching was aided by “the assistance of laughable errors by the Kentuckians.” When the game got out of hand, the umpire “entered into the spirit of the farce and called men out whenever the decision was within feet of close.” Writers speculated the umpire wanted to end the game before it got too dark outside.

The Reds also made four errors Wednesday in the Cubs’ romp, including three by third baseman Nick Senzel in the sixth and seventh innings. Unfortunately for the Reds, the umpires could not call Cubs hitters out whenever there was a close play to get the game moving, as they apparently did for the Colonels in 1897. There was no instant replay in 1897 or video for that matter, though Thomas Edison was reported to have invented the motion picture in 1891 with his Kinetoscope machine.

Attendance for the Colts-Colonels game was listed at 520, according to the Tribune, and the game was played in a tidy 2 hours, 14 minutes despite all the offense.

“The crowd which came out was more than repaid for its visit, for a more spectacularly weird exhibition of the national game was never given,” the Tribune reported. “Prairie leaguers stood aghast at the frantic misplays that took place every moment and yet, betimes there were startling catches and stops to keep the game agog with enthusiasm.”

The same was true for Wednesday’s game at Wrigley, where most of the announced crowd of 33,991 stuck around until the end on a nice, summer night. The game took 2:55 to complete.

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Chicago Cubs first baseman Jeimer Candelario signs baseballs before the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)