MINNEAPOLIS — Through the first 18 innings this week at Target Field, the Chicago Cubs were in catch-up mode.

In the first two games of the series, the Minnesota Twins scored two runs in the first inning and the Cubs failed to take a lead either night en route to a pair of losses. The Cubs, though, didn’t let the consecutive defeats weigh on them, avoiding a sweep with an 8-1 victory Thursday afternoon.

The Cubs (55-38) tallied 14 hits, six for extra bases, and went 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Pete Crow-Armstrong recorded his fifth multihomer game of the season. Right-hander Colin Rea did his part by holding the Twins to one run on three hits in a season-high seven innings.

“We played from behind the whole series,” manager Craig Counsell said. “This is what we’ve seen a lot from our offense against the right-handed starters is every inning is a tough inning. And we did, we executed that today.”

As the Cubs head to the Bronx for three games against the New York Yankees before the All-Star break, here are three takeaways from their series-salvaging win.

1. Pete Crow-Armstrong keeps showing why he’s a dangerous hitter.

When Crow-Armstrong stepped to the plate in the third inning against Twins starter Chris Paddack, he was searching for his first hit of the series, sitting on an 0-for-9 stretch.

He emphatically ended the oh-fer by attacking Paddack’s first-pitch fastball and sending it over the wall to dead center for a two-run homer. Crow-Armstrong went deep again in the seventh off lefty reliever Anthony Misiewicz to put the Cubs up 7-1.

“He’s going to swing and the ball is going to be in play, so you’re going to have to deal with some of that,” Counsell said. “Like, you can’t hit a home run every at-bat, can’t get a hit every at-bat, but he can impact the game. And that’s what we saw today is that he impacts the game and in a huge way.

“So just stay right where he is and know that the other guy’s trying to get you out. You’re going to have a couple days like that from time to time, but be the guy that drives the bus the next day.”

Crow-Armstrong added a double in the ninth for a three-extra-base-hit day. He made history along the way.

• He became the fourth-fastest in MLB history to 25 home runs and 25 steals in a season, reaching the mark in his 92nd game. That trails only Eric Davis in 1987 (69 games), Bobby Bonds in 1973 (91) and Alfonso Soriano in 2002 (91).
• He’s the first player in franchise history to have five multihomer games in a season at age 23 or younger, and he’s the first Cubs hitter with that many since Derrek Lee had eight in 2005.
• He’s one home run shy of the Cubs record by a hitter 23 or younger (Kris Bryant with 26 in 2015).

“I’ve only been humbled by the names that I’m mentioned with,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Eric Davis is about as all-around badass as a center fielder ever gets, so that’s pretty cool.

“But we’re not even at the break. So I’ve got three more (games) to go finish strong and make sure that we’ve got a good lead in the division. And then we started thinking about fun second-half things.”

2. The offense showed potency in a bounce-back performance.

The Cubs entered the series finale in an small offensive funk after a 28-run outpouring in three weekend games against the St. Louis Cardinals.

They managed just three runs in the first two games in Minnesota while going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and leaving 12 on base. They quickly eclipsed that meager scoring Thursday by producing at least one run in the second through fifth innings thanks to timely hitting.

Five Cubs finished with multihit games — Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson, Carson Kelly and Nico Hoerner — and three of their eight runs came on two-out RBIs.

Column: Chicago Cubs offense has been a machine so far — but it still could use a little help

It was the type of collective bounce-back performance from the lineup that sets up the Cubs to carry some momentum into the All-Star break.

“We’ve got a really good group of professionals that consistently put up good at-bats,” Swanson said, “and over the course of time, this game’s funny. Like, I feel like we hit a lot of balls hard the past few days. We just really haven’t gotten any results from (them). Or a lot of good swings, just misses, and lot of good at-bats without the results.

“Sometimes it can be so easy to just focus on the results. But with our group, the ability to continue to go out there and take care of your business bodes well for good things to happen. And today those good things happened.”

3. Colin Rea’s reliability stood out again.

More often than not, the Cubs know the level of consistency they can expect when Rea is on the mound.

His seven innings of one-run ball marked the 14th time in 19 appearances (15 starts) that Rea has surrendered two earned runs or fewer. He lowered his season ERA to 3.91 in 92 innings, a reliability that has proved vital for the rotation.

“Colin’s been awesome,” Counsell said. “I mean, we talk about in good seasons you need some — I don’t want to call this a surprise — but you need guys to step up. And Colin, with some injuries that we’ve had, has stepped up in a big way.

“He’s done exactly what we hoped he would do.”

Rea hasn’t been flashy, relying on the Cubs’ elite defense rather than swings and misses (65 strikeouts), but he has been effective in the role. He credited the adjustments to his delivery that he makes between starts with pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and assistant coach Casey Jacobson and continuing to refine his pitches.

“It’s been kind of an up-and-down first half, I think, for me personally,” Rea said. “But I’ve just got to take this one and continue it into the All-Star break and then the second half.”