Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Meghan Montemurro talks Cubs' 23-3 rout of Padres, Dansby Swanson's hot streak

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Chuck Swirsky were joined by Meghan Montemurro of the Tribune to discuss the Cubs' sweep of the Padres and shortstop Dansby Swanson's scorching hot streak.

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. I'm not a fan of any team. I'm just a fan of being right. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. The 3-2 to Taylor from Wix. Hit on the ground to short. Danesby Swanson makes the play. Cubs win the ball again.

It's an easy one today. 23 to 3. They finish off a three-game sweep over San Diego. The Cubs have won five in a row. They have won 9. of their last 10 and 15 of their last 19. Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer of On the Call, courtesy of the Northwestern Cubs Radio Network,

and we go to our hotline for more Cubs talk. That is where we find Megan Montemarro, the Cubs beatwriter for the Chicago Tribune. She has a new Twitter account. She is at Meg Montemoreau, just in case you wanted to know. So happy to have her on our show on this Thursday with Chuck Swirsky. Hi, Megan. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys? Good. Yeah, that's my first

public service announcement. I know you're trying to get more people to your Twitter account. Your other one got hacked, right? So it's at Meg Montemarro with two R's. Correct. Okay, so good to know. Everybody make note of that on the Twitter list. In the meantime, did you think that you would be covering a 23-run Cubs output yesterday? Yeah, I mean, when you look at just, what the offense has been doing over the last, you know, seven to ten days. I mean, obviously the terrible, you know, four to six weeks stretched ahead offensively where it just seemed like no one was really hitting. That obviously wasn't going to last forever.

And, you know, I think obviously during that, those pair of, you know, 10-game winning for weeks, the offense showed what it's capable of doing. And obviously, you know, the conditions against the Padres for all three games were obviously very hitter friendly and you know you saw the offense show up in a big way. We're talking to Megan Montamaro, Cubs beat writer for the Tribune here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie with Chuck Swirsky. And what did you make of how Dansby Swanson has kind of talked about the offensive output that he's had pretty much since June 17th. I think a lot of people have isolated that Rocky series is when we've started to see a change. What's his bit, his demeanor been like,

Megan, when he's talked about this? Yeah. I mean, I think it's really, been a mix of, you know, working to address some of the mechanical issues that had been in his delivery, you know, at the start of the season, you know, when he had a couple of good weeks to open the year, you know, a real focal point for him in the offseason and into spring training was, you know, being more athletic in the box. You know, he's such an athletic defender. He has a lot of natural athleticism. And so, you know, the focal point was really like, you know, bring that into the batters box, like try and not get too much into your head about, like, you know, is your elbow at the right angle? Are you perfectly, you know, keeping your shoulder tucked in?

Like, you know, he really focused on, trying to focus on, you know, what you can control, which is how you set up in the box. And then after that, you know, try and let things take over naturally. And then obviously the other side of it is the mental side. And, you know, he talked about that, you know, even if you've been in the league for years, sometimes you just need, you know, coaches, teammates, just to believe in you. And, like, you know, reiterate, you know, you're a good hitter. Like, you're not, the numbers you're putting up aren't who you are. And so really, I think it was a combination of factors.

But obviously, I mean, the slug has been the biggest thing, the number of home runs he's hit, obviously super impressive. And, you know, obviously, you know, getting that kind of production out of the number nine spot in the order, too, obviously really just changes the dynamic top to bottom. Hey, Megan, I'm a big fan of yours. I'm just Joe Bag of Donuts here, filling in. The alias.

My name is Chuck Swerski. I do the Bulls, but coming out of the bullpen today. But I love your work. By the way, you covered the Phillies for a while, right? Correct, yes. Well, you know what? I grew up with Larry Anderson as kids. Oh, okay.

And Larry was a major league pitcher, and he pitched close to 20 years in the big leagues. Yeah. And we grew up. together in Bellevue, Washington, and little known fact. So Larry got traded for Jeff Bagwell. Yeah. Larry was with Houston, and I spoke to him the day after the trade. And he goes, I got some good news. I got some bad news. I said, what's the good news? He goes, well, I'm going to Boston, and we got a chance to win. I said, what's the bad news? He goes, these guys are telling me around here that they, the number one prospect in their system,

Bagwell. I said, I've never heard of them. Oh, no. So there you go. Anyway, Megan, a little story there. Love the connection. Which is true. Yeah, small world. I'm looking at the division, okay, and Milwaukee is Milwaukee. How they do it every year is amazing. But I'm looking at St. Louis coming to town, and the Cardinals, I don't want to say they're a surprise, but, you know, they kind of are. And then you get Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh is doing much better. They're finally at least competitive. I'm very very, very

disappointed with Cincinnati. I don't know what's going on there, whether it's their ownership or GM, and I feel badly for Terry Francona. But I want to talk about the division. How do you look at it right now with 80-plus games played? Yeah, I mean, I still, I understand, you know, the brewers are the brewers, and I'm a believer of, you know, if there's a team that's been dominating the division, like they need to be considered the favorites until they get be thrown. And so, you know, I think understandably, you know, Milwaukee is the team to beat in the division right now. But I just feel like it's just too early to really, I didn't count out the Cubs from the division. Like I understand that Milwaukee has looked really good.

I think the biggest question for the Cubs, you know, and trying to, you know, chip away at that division lead is can they stay close enough and get some of their pitchers healthy? Because, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing. The offense has shown what it can do when it's locked in. It can be one of the best offenses in baseball. They showed that last year, too. If they get a little bit more consistency in terms of not such insane peaks and valleys collectively, you know, they're going to be one of the toughest lineups in the majors.

And so I think the biggest thing is, you know, you still have a couple more series against Milwaukee left on the schedule. Obviously, you have to take care of business against the rest of the division. You know, getting a look at St. Louis again this weekend. But I don't think, you know, being five and a half games out, I just, I think it's too soon. You know, they're four back in the win column. So, you know, for the Cubs, they have to get their pitching healthy, especially the rotation.

There's too much talent on the aisle right now to make it, you know, another three months of the schedule. And so to me, that's really the key for them to run down Milwaukee. Okay, just one question. completely unrelated, but if you can be as transparent as possible, Kyle Schwerber to me, I mean, I'm thinking this guy has legitimate shot at the Hall of Fame. Is that too far-fetched, or are you buying that? I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, as a Hall of Fame voter, I honestly don't know how I would feel on his candidacy. I would need to see, you know, what does the last few

years of his career look like. You know, is he able to have pretty steady production, you know, until he retires? I think that's a big question. I know there's the career milestones, you know, 500 career homers and all that. You know, I would need to see what other numbers look like. You know, I obviously know his bat average isn't great, but that's also not what his strength is. And so I think it's too soon. I think it'll be a very interesting test case if he does get to 500 homers, which obviously he's trending towards. So, yeah, it'll be a really fascinating case. And, I mean, obviously, if the Phillies find a way to win a World Series too while he's there,

you know, I think you can't overlook that if he's one of the best players on a World Series team. So it'll be interesting to see what his full body of work looks like at the end of his career. Yeah, I mean, Megan Lila, I mean, he's had seasons of 30, 38, 32, 46, 46, 47, 38, 56, he's already at 30. Yeah, I mean, I do think it helps that, like, you know, I don't think maybe 20 years ago, a DH-only type player, I think obviously would have a much more difficult chance

of getting into the Hall of Fame, but I think youth have evolved on that, especially now that there's the DH in both leagues. So, yeah, I mean, obviously those power numbers are super impressive. No, I think that that's, it's been a discussion, and you know this, Megan, and I feel like it's percolated over the past couple of weeks, is based on the power numbers he's put up.

It's something that will obviously keep tracking, but the playoffs may matter and their playoff success. The World Series, if that happens, may matter more than anything, especially when you consider the Dodgers. I also want to get back to what we talked about with the pitching. So the probabilities right now, as it stands for this Cardinal series, it's David Peterson, who was great in his first outing with the Cubs, gave up only two earned runs over five and two-thirds against Milwaukee.

Then you've got Shodi and Managa, who kept it in the park well, in his last outing. And then you've got Javier Assad, who we saw in relief, give up four earned runs. I don't know if that holds on Sunday, but that's it, at least right now.

You know, what do you make of Peterson's next outing? What are you looking for? And then do you end up, do you think we'll see Assad end up pitching that outing on Sunday? Yeah, I mean, in terms of Peterson,

I mean, given the fact, you know, he basically had been around the team for like a maximum of 48 hours before he debuted in Milwaukee. I mean, I thought, you know, he was really impressive in exactly what they need. I know, obviously, you know, he gave up that home run to begin the game.

But, you know, they need a guy who can keep the ball on the ground. He has a track record of that. You know, he showed in that outing he's capable of continuing to do that. Obviously, the defense played well behind them. So he really should get a boost in that regard. And I think it'll help to, you know, talking to Carson Kelly after Peterson's Cub's Day view. And, you know, he basically was like, yeah, I didn't have a chance to catch a bullpen, so I didn't really have an idea of maybe how his pitches move in person and fully discussed,

you know, diving deep into his repertoire. And so they really focused on his strengths. And, you know, in a situation like that, it's basically being like, what's your go-to, like, put-away pitch or when you need a strike, and what's the pitch that gets your delivery back on track if you're feeling out of whack? And so it was really a crash course, and he did well against Milwaukee. So, yeah, I think it'll be really interesting to see, you know, what he looks like in his second start. But I think the early returns were really valuable. And then in terms of Assad, I mean, yeah, I would expect him to start Sunday how many innings that looks like, you know, unclear. But he got enough pitches in release the other night.

I think he was around like 55 that he, you know, should be able to go a couple innings. And the off days obviously help them move things around as needed. Megan Montemarro, thanks as always for taking the time and have a wonderful holiday weekend. Sounds good. Have a great holiday weekend to you guys as well. Thank you. That's Megan Montemorrow, Cubs Beat Writer for the Chicago Tribune. She has a new Twitter account, Meg Montemoreau. You can follow her there.

Friendly reminder, we will be out tomorrow. We won't be doing the show, but I will be at many different places. Join me as I lead Budweiser's Celebration Road Show to commemorate America's pastime and 250th birthday with your chance. to win tickets to see the Cubs and Cardinals Saturday night at Wrigley Field. It is five locations, Chuck. You asked me how many. Yes. Five. So here's the timeline. A chance to win tickets, by the way, at each stop along the way.

Billy Go Tavern at Navy Pier at 5, then Crossroads Bar and Grill on West Madison. That's by Chuck's office at 540. That's going to be the challenge. Can we get from Navy Pier to almost the United Center? And who's driving again? Mitch Rosen. Mitch Rosen, the czar? Yeah.

Mitch is in on this. Then, so after crossroads, then we go to the rabbit hole on North Wells at 620. So a little bit north and split the difference. The reveler on North Damon at 7. And then gaslight on North Clark at 740. Wow. I hear the Blues Brothers review like in the back of my head while reading this. Come out to drink fresh Budweiser.

Register for your chance to win a pair of tickets to see Cubs and Cardinals on Saturday night. Courtesy of Budweiser, official beer of the Chicago Cubs. There was a monumental trade that went down in the... league yesterday, the association, Chuck. We should probably discuss it, right? Well, it's the talk of the NBA. That it is, and it's going to shake up the Eastern Conference. Boston Celtics, trading away Jalen Brown. We'll do it next.