Riding a scorching 17-3 stretch and historic late-inning heroics, the first-place Chicago Cubs are mirroring legendary starts from 1969 and 2016 to cement themselves as World Series threats.
The Chicago Cubs are the hottest team in baseball.
They have won seven straight games and just walked off the Cincinnati Reds on back-to-back nights. Michael Conforto was the hero in Monday night’s win, and Michael Busch came through in the bottom of the 10th inning of Tuesday’s win.
There is simply no stopping this Cubs team right now. Chicago has won 17 of its last 20 games and has had a 10-game win streak and a 7-game win streak during this stretch.
The Cubs now sit in first place in the National League Central with a 24-12 record. They have a 2 ½-game lead over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals, and their .667 winning percentage is the third-best in baseball behind the Atlanta Braves (.703) and New York Yankees (.694).
The Cubs haven’t started a season this well many times in their history. As a matter of fact, winning 24 of their first 36 games has only happened three times in the team’s history during the Live Ball Era (since 1920).
The other two seasons were in 1969, when the team went 24-12 in the first 36 games, and in 2016, when the team went 27-9 to start the season. Both of those teams won 90+ games in the regular season, and the 2016 team went on to win the World Series.
This has no doubt been an unreal 20-game stretch for the Cubs. They have won 85% of their games during this span, including 10 come-from-behind victories, six one-run wins, four walkoff wins, four wins after trailing in the 8th inning or later, and three extra-innings wins.
According to OptaSTATS, no other MLB team in the modern era has done all of that over any 20-game span in any season.
The Cubs are playing like a team that could make a deep postseason run in October. They have won 13 straight games at Wrigley Field, and all three areas (hitting, rotation, bullpen) have stepped up in the early going.
The offense has done its job and come up in big spots recently. The North Siders rank third in runs per game on the season. Nico Hoerner and Moises Ballesteros have been the engine of the offense over the past few weeks.
The addition of Edward Cabrera has also been a difference maker for this rotation. He currently owns a 3.27 ERA and 37 strikeouts across seven starts and has thrown a quality start in three of his last four outings.
The Cubs certainly have the makings of a World Series team. This recent 20-game stretch proves just that.