Kyle Hendricks yesterday became the first Cubs starting pitcher in more than 3 years to allow exactly 3 runs, each on a solo homer.
The last to do it: Hendricks himself, in a 3-1 loss to the.
Cubs who led NL in pitching categories, Part 1 By JohnW53 on May 11, 2021, 6:38am CDT +
431 times, an average of more than 3 per season.
They have led in at least 1 of the 36 categories shown at Baseball-Reference.com in
110 of the 120 seasons. Three of the 10 in which they had no leaders have come in the past 20 seasons: 2001, 2009 and 2014.
In 1992, a Cub led in
16 categories; in every one, the leader was Greg Maddux.
In 1938, they led in
18, with Bill Lee on top in 14.
And in 1918, they were first in
21, including 16 by Hippo Vaughn.
.
The Cubs won the pennant in the latter 2 seasons. They led in 14, 13 and 12 categories in 3 other title years: 1945, 1932 and 1929.
First Cubs win by team s top pitchers, Part 2 bleedcubbieblue.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bleedcubbieblue.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
More about low-hit season openers By JohnW53 on Apr 3, 2021, 7:34am CDT +
The Cubs made history on Opening Day in their 5-3 loss to the Pirates.
Until they did it Thursday, no team ever had begun a season with 2 or fewer hits, struck out 13 times and scored more than 2 runs.
Only 3 previous teams had had so few hits plus at least 13 strikeouts in an opener.
All had exactly 13 strikeouts, and in only 1 of the 3 did a team score a run. The Dodgers made 2 hits in a 3-2 loss at Houston on April 10, 1980.
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That game, it s worth noting, lasted only 2 hours and 3 minutes, barely half the exactly 4 hours of the Cubs loss on Thursday.
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Hope springs anew for players, coaches and fans alike on Opening Day, with stats getting reset and each team starting from square one.
Everyone wants to start the season on the right foot, and the players below did that and then some, putting up Opening Day performances that haven’t been topped.
Here are the single-game Opening Day records (dating back to 1901, with a hat tip to Stathead) players will be aiming for when all 30 teams take the field Thursday to begin the 2021 campaign.
Most homers: 3 (4 times)
Blue Jays slugger George Bell was the first to accomplish the feat, doing so in Toronto’s 1988 season opener against Kansas City Bell’s first game after winning the ‘87 American League MVP Award with a 47-homer season. Bell followed it up by going 5-for-5 in the Blue Jays’ second game, but he faded thereafter and finished the year with a .751 OPS, down from .957 the previous season.