The Cubs will start tonight's game against the Brewers needing to score only 8 more runs to become the first team to reach 100,000 since the start of the National League in 1876.
Their 99,992 are 1.
2021 is the 75th anniversary of 1946, a year in which the Cubs were defending National League champions and posted a winning percentage they would not surpass until 1967.
In 1945, they had been 9.
Cubs short starts, then scoreless relief By JohnW53 on May 3, 2021, 4:15am CDT +
After Saturday s game at Cincinnati, the Cubs bullpen was roundly praised and deservedly so.
Five relievers combined to shut out the Reds for 5 innings, during which the Cubs turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory.
Davies has pitched no more than 4 innings in 5 of his 6 starts this year. Kyle Hendricks has done so 3 times; Jake Arrieta, Alec Mills and Trevor Williams once each, leaving the Cubs total at 11 such games.
They have had
25 per season.
434 of those games
14.2 percent, or 1 of every 7 Cubs relievers did not allow a run the rest of the way.
Longest saves by Cubs pitchers By JohnW53 on Apr 18, 2021, 7:04am CDT +
On April 8, Craig Kimbrel recorded his 350th career save his first that required 5 outs.
Since then, when the Cubs have had a lead after 6 innings, several fans have half-jokingly suggested Kimbrel be brought in for a 3-inning save.
.
2,901 saves.
(Saves became an official statistic only in 1969, but the rules for awarding a save were applied retroactively to earlier seasons.)
354 different pitchers are credited with those saves, from Lee Smith, with 180, to 108 with exactly 1, most recently Andrew Chafin last season.
.
In just
....
Only
6 of the 327 came in the last decade. There were 8 such games in 2000-09, after 22 in 1990-99.
Cubs milestone wins on road By JohnW53 on Jan 9, 2021, 3:43am CST +
11,000 games in the National League.
They ended the season with
11,016.
4,971 on the road.
So, the Cubs need
29 more wins to reach
5,000 on the road. They have won at least 30 road games in every full season but one beginning in 2001, and from 2015-19 they averaged 43.
They were 15-12 on the road in the shortened 2020 season.
.
Two Major League teams already have won 5,000 times on the road: the Giants (5,105) and Dodgers (5,026).
The Cardinals (4,989) also have more road wins than the Cubs.
The Cubs first win ever in the National League came on the road, a 4-0 triumph at Louisville in their NL debut on Tuesday, April 25, 1876.