Cubs’ homers send Locke, Marlins reeling

MIAMI — They brought the North Side to South Florida, Chicago Cubs fans still basking in last year’s long-awaited championship and eager for more.

Joe Maddon’s marauders gave them plenty to cheer Thursday at Marlins Park, including Kris Bryant’s three-run home run that knocked someone’s drink over on the porch below the Budweiser bar on a 416-foot belt to left.

The area behind the visitors’ dugout was Little Wrigley with a lot of blue bluster as the Cubs hammered Jeff Locke for the second time this month on the way to an 11-1 thumping of the Miami Marlins.

It didn’t get any better when Locke left after getting lit up for five runs in four innings. Addison Russell greeted his replacement, Dustin McGowan, with another homer to nearly the same spot as Bryant’s.

Willson Contreras later launched a two-run homer off Junichi Tazawa, who was making his first appearance off the disabled list.

When a Cubs replay challenge turned a caught stealing into a stolen base for Ian Happ, the reaction made it clear prevailing sentiment this night came with a Chuh Kaw Go accent. Marlins management could at least thank the invaders for inflating one of the largest weekday crowds of the season, 23,472.

There wasn’t much else for Miami to take from this one aside from the leadoff homer Marcell Ozuna scorched in the second. Ozuna jumped on a 3-0 sinker on the inner half from Jake Arrieta and propelled it in a blink into the bleachers in left.

The team’s most deserving All-Star became the eighth Marlin to hit 20 homers before the All-Star break. Most recently, Giancarlo Stanton did so in 2014 and ’16.

Stanton and Justin Bour are two homers away from making it a trio at 20 before the July 11 Midsummer Classic in Little Havana that is certain to feature a large contingent of these Cubs — five were leading at their positions this week in NL voting.

Locke, whose season was delayed two months by biceps tendinitis, remained without a win in five starts — the Marlins lost all five of those games, including the 10-2 pounding at Wrigley Field on June 7. The lefty has yet to complete six innings in any start this season.

“You’d like a guy to be able to give you at least five, keep you in the ball game,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said before the game.

Locke has at least done the latter in some outings, but not this one. It was his second consecutive one that lasted only four innings.

The first inning couldn’t have been tidier for Locke, as he retired the side on seven pitches (five strikes).

He needed 34 to get through the second while giving up two runs and three hits.