CHICAGO – Who are these guys?

Where have they been hiding?

How did they arrive?

What took so long?

And the biggest question of all: Will it last?

The team formerly known as the Offensively Challenged Giants suddenly has morphed into the team now known as the Most Explosive Giants Team of All Time.

Yeah, a little dramatic. But in the moment, the characterization fit the spirit and vibes in the jubilant visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field after the Giants crushed the Cubs 18-3 Friday afternoon, a blowout that came on the heels of a 12-run outburst a day earlier in Milwaukee and an 18-run parade five days prior in Colorado.

Those aren’t the ghosts of Giants legends past dressed up in Giants uniforms and slugging the ball all over the park. Those are indeed the 2026 Giants doing all that damage. The offense that has ranked last in too many categories to count has emerged as an offensive juggernaut.

At least momentarily.

What gives?

“The offense has been marching in a really strong direction,” manager Tony Vitello said.

“It was just a matter of time for things to start to click,” said Casey Schmitt, who homered twice.

“We have too much talent on this team, on the pitching staff, on the defensive side, offensively, to not believe we can do something special,” said Matt Chapman, who also homered twice and drove in eight runs, matching the San Francisco franchise record.

The Giants might still be 12 games under .500 and buried in the National League West standings, but they moseyed out of the clubhouse and into the streets of Wrigleyville believing they’re far better than 26-38, far better than the team that started historically bad, far better than the team that failed to win more than three games in a row.

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“There’s still a lot of baseball left,” Chapman said. “We can’t predict the future, but when you’re on a roll like this and have a good feeling in the clubhouse, it doesn’t feel like you’re as many games under .500 as we are.”

Yeah, this offense might not match up with the best in franchise history, but there are examples that suggest this team is on a roll experienced by few other Giants teams.

Let us count the ways.

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• The Giants collected seven homers on the day, the most they ever hit at Wrigley, which opened in 1914.

• Willy Adames also homered twice, the third time in franchise history three hitters homered twice in a game. 

• Jonah Cox hit his first big-league homer. In the ninth inning off a position player. That makes him the first West Coast Giant with both his first hit and first homer off position players.

• Chapman’s fourth-inning homer was a grand slam, the Giants’ sixth in 18 days. Yeah, they’ve borrowed the old Slam Diego thing to make Slam Francisco their own.

• Chapman’s eight RBIs matched the total of five other Giants in the San Francisco era: Willie Mays (in his four-homer game), Orlando Cepeda, Brandon Crawford, Joc Pederson, and Wilmer Flores.

• Chapman had one homer in the first 58 games. Now he has three in five games.

• It’s the first time since 1944 the Giants scored at least 30 runs over two games.

Again, what gives?

“The Gary Pettis factor,” someone said in the clubhouse.

It’s as good a reason as any. The Giants are 3-0 since Pettis showed up Wednesday in Milwaukee to begin his two-day crash course before serving his first day as third-base coach Friday and spending the afternoon waving runners home and high-fiving them on their home run trots.

“Having Gary here active was phenomenal,” Vitello said.

It’s more than that, of course.

“We didn’t have many guys swinging the bat early, and it seemed like everybody’s kind of come alive at a similar time,” Chapman said. “It’s been a lot of fun. Obviously when we score a lot of runs, it looks great on the scoreboard, but the quality of at-bats everybody’s been taking the last couple of weeks probably is what’s led to this.”

Chapman cited Jung Hoo Lee, whose hit streak was extended to 13, and Bryce Eldridge, who’s on a six-game hit streak and ended any discussion of whether he’s an everyday player. Luis Arráez also has a six-game streak, but that’s a typical week for him.

Schmitt provided a different take.

“Sticking together,” he said. “The first month was rough, but we were showing up every day, sticking together, and grinding. It’s baseball. Stuff’s gonna happen. Give credit to us for sticking close and sticking together.”

The game was so lopsided that Cubs catcher Carson Kelly was summoned to pitch the ninth. Never a good look, but the Giants resumed the jollity regardless. Cox and Schmitt hit consecutive homers; for Schmitt, it was his team-leading 15th, the most homers by a Giant through 64 games since Barry Bonds in 2004.

“Hunter [Mense, hitting coach] said try to homer, and I said I’m just going to try to hit a line drive,” Schmitt said. “The line drive ended up going out.”

Skeptical fans would say it’s an aberration, a mirage, a big tease, that this isn’t them. The folks in the clubhouse would disagree and suggest this more closely resembles who they are, and that there’s more to come.

Did the true Giants offense finally wake up? Can the offense save the season? Is this team heading somewhere special, as Chapman declared? Will it last?

The answer’s in the bat rack. Pitching and defense are essential for the Giants, but 18-run explosions are always welcome. If they can do it. And they can.