When third baseman Patrick Wisdom was called up by the Cubs on May 25, no one really knew whom the 30-year-old rookie was.
Three months later, Wisdom is no longer an unknown. He has frustrated pitchers all season, and he displayed his light-tower power with two more home runs in the Cubs’ 7-0 victory Saturday against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
But something has added to his latest power surge, and it’s not a different approach or even adjusting his timing. Instead, it’s the addition of his new mustache.
‘‘It’s gonna stay for a little bit,’’ Wisdom said with a big smile. ‘‘The power of the mustache, I guess.’’
Wisdom has terrorized Sox pitching in the first two games of the series. After celebrating his 30th birthday Friday with a pair of long homers, he had the same thing in mind Saturday.
In the fourth inning, Wisdom crushed a towering drive on a changeup from Sox right-hander Lance Lynn to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. But he wasn’t done there. After a grand slam by Rafael Ortega gave the Cubs a 6-0 lead in the fourth, Wisdom was looking to do more damage when he came to the plate in the fifth.
He got a low-and-inside fastball from Lynn on a 2-2 count but somehow crushed a rocket into the seats in left field to make it 7-0. It was his fourth multihomer game of the season.
‘‘I’m on TV too much to look that bad,’’ manager David Ross said about growing a mustache with Wisdom. ‘‘It’s working good for [Wisdom]. . . . I’m going to spare you guys that look. But, I mean, wow. What he’s doing is so impressive.’’
Wisdom became the first Cubs rookie to have consecutive multi-homer games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and his 25 homers are one shy of Kris Bryant’s Cubs rookie record set in 2015. He leads National League rookies in homers and slugging percentage.
‘‘It’d be hard to pinpoint one certain thing,’’ Wisdom said. ‘‘I get kind of surprised myself sometimes. I think it’s just talking things over with the staff here. . . . I think it’s just kind of slowing things down and taking it pitch by pitch.’’
There was a time this season where Wisdom’s power had leveled off as pitchers began to adjust to him, but he clearly has made his own adjustments.
‘‘It’s unbelievable,’’ said right-hander Alec Mills, who threw 8„ scoreless innings in the victory. ‘‘I think in other spots he wasn’t given the most chances. In a situation like this, given every-day playing time, it’s special to watch.’’
Wisdom has seven homers in his last eight games and likely is headed for a top-three finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting as he puts the finishing touches on one of the best rookie seasons in Cubs history.
And while the team’s roster for next season is in flux and few players are guaranteed to return, he has solidified his spot for 2022. That’s something not many could have predicted after his arrival.
‘‘I think you have these stigmas that we put on older guys that come from Triple-A,’’ Ross said last week. ‘‘It’s like: ‘It’s not gonna last. It’s not gonna last. It’s not gonna last.’ And just seeing some guys prove that wrong is fun for me.’’
‘‘I don’t want to sound rude, but if [anyone is] surprised, that’s on them,’’ Wisdom said of Cubs’ late bloomers. ‘‘I know what I can do, and other people know what we can do. I think there’s a reason why we’re here and why we’re playing well, like we are.’’
