Historically, the Cubs make double digit winning streaks count

The Cubs are currently on a two-game losing streak, but nobody cares because before they lost the final two games of their road series against the Dodgers this past weekend they had won ten in a row. Those ten wins literally took them from last place to first place in a week and a half. Given that all five teams in the NL Central are all within 3.5 games of each other, you can see how they could have made up so many places in such a short period of time.

Currently, the Brewers and Cardinals are tied for last, which seems about right.

If you feel like the Cubs don't do these kinds of long streaks all that often, you might be surprised to learn that it was the 32nd streak in franchise history of at least 10 straight wins. Holy shit, that seems like a lot.

However, the reason it seems odd to us is because 26 of those 10 game winning streaks happened before 1953.

Oh. In fact, the "Cubs" only have 28 streaks of 10 or more wins, because this franchise has three as the White Stockings and one as the Colts.

Since 1970, the Cubs have had just five streaks of 10 or more wins.

The good news is that all five of the teams were pretty good, three of them made the playoffs, two seemed destined to make them until the end and one of them won a little something called the World Series.

In 1970, the Cubs had gotten off to a 1-4 start, and I'm sure fans were still freaking about about the collapse from the year before (some still are). But then the Cubs swept the Phillies, Expos (two games), Cardinals (two games) and Astros. They won their eleventh in a row in Pissburgh on April 27 to go to 13-4 on the season and had a 2.5 game lead in the NL East. And, then they lost six in a row to go 13-10. They finished the season 84-78, in second place, five games behind the Pirates.

If you thought the 17 years between 10 or more game streaks from 1953 to 1970 was a long wait, after the streak early in the 1970 season they didn't do it again for 28 years. I grew up on those 80s and 90s Cubs. So, I can completely believe it.

The ragtag 1998 Cubs started their streak on May 29 at Wrigley against the Atlanta Barves. Rod Beck was given a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth and the vaunted trio of Curtis Pride, Ozzie Guillen and Keith Lockhart were due up for Atlanta. Pride hit the second pitch of the inning for a homer. Whoops. The silence in the park was deafening. And not just to Curtis, for once.

The game was still tied 3-3 in the 11th when John Rocker faced Brant Brown with one on and one out. Brant smoked one into the right field bleachers to win it.

The Cubs took a 9-4 lead into the ninth in game two of the series and Terry Mulholland was in his third inning of relief of starter Steve Trachsel. It didn't go well. Michael Tucker walked to start the ninth, Eddie Perez walked, Danny Bautista singled to score Tucker, Guillen singled to load the bases. Whoops. So Beck came in to what was now a save situation given that the tying run was on deck with nobody out. And....Rod gave up a single to Tony Graffanino to score Perez, walked Chipper Jones to force in Bautista, and Andres Gallaragga hit a sac fly to make it 9-8 with one out. Ryan Klesko hit a liner to shortstop Jeff Blauser (yeah, that was still happening) and Blauser threw to Mickey Morandini at second to double off Graffanino, and the Cubs hung on.

Yikes.

Two games in, it barely felt like they were winning, much less streaking.

Beck got the save in the third game (Rod pitched every day that year) to complete the sweep. Then the Cubs opened a series at home against the Marlins, and it was the first career start for Ryan Dempster. If you were hoping they beat the shit out of him, well...they did.

Dempster's first ever inning as a starter in the big leagues began with a strikeout of Brant Brown. And then, this:

Mickey Morandini walked.
Sammy Sosa homered to a lighthouse in Lake Michigan to make it 2-0.
Mark Grace walked, then advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Henry Rodriguez homered to make it 4-0.
Jeff Blauser walked.
Dempster hit Jose Hernandez.
But then Sandy Martinez struck out, and Geremi Gonzalez grounded out to short.

Jim Leyland let Dempster start the second, and Demp gave up a double to Brown and an RBI single to Morandini. He struck out Sammy, and then was replaced by the great Vic Darensbourg. The Cubs won 10-2 and Dempster's line was 1.1 IP, four hits, five runs, all earned, three walks (naturally), three strikeouts, two homers and wild pitch.

The next night was a pitchers' duel between Brian Meadows and Mark Clark.

Huh?

It was 1-1 in the ninth, when Felix Heredia (just a few weeks away from an ill-fated trade to the Cubs) replaced Meadows to start the inning, loaded the bases with one out (including a balk when Sosa was batting). Jay Powell came in to face the great Jason Hardtke. Hardtke was a third baseman/outfielder who played just 67 games in the big leagues. He was pinch hitting for Terrell Lowery who had already pinch hit for Henry Rodriguez. With the outfielders playing in to try to throw out Morandini in case of a sac fly, Hardtke hit the 1-1 pitch over another future Cub, Todd Dunwoody's head in center for a game winning "single." Presumably all of Todd became a Cub in 2001, not just his head. But who can remember?

In the second game of the series, rookie Kerry Wood, less than a month after his 20 strikeout game (ask Pat Hughes about it sometime) cruised through eight innings allowing five hits, one run and striking out nine (he threw 123 pitches...it was a different time) in a 5-1 win to complete the sweep of the Marlins.

That brought up the final series of the home stand, against the White Sox back when these inter-league series actually seemed to mean something.

Steve Trachsel started against Jim Parque and the Sox scored twice in the top of the first on RBI hits by Albert Belle and Robin Ventura. The Cubs took the lead in the third on a bases clearing double by Henry Rodriguez. Sammy gave them some breathing room with a fifth inning homer to make it 5-2, but the Sox tied it in the sixth with a rally that included a Chad Kreuter RBI single to make it 5-5. Somebody should have stolen his hat.

It was still 5-5 after nine, when the Sox went to the other ill-fated future Cubs' deadline reliever acquisition Matt Karchner. Brant Brown, who had come in as part of a double switch when Trachsel left the game in the eighth, looked like the hero. He doubled to start the inning, Manny Alexander bunted him to third (I'm surprised Manny knew which end of the bat to hold) and then, the great Jerry Manuel had Karchner intentionally walk Mickey Morandini and Mark Grace to get to Sammy. Sammy had already homered in the game, and was five days into a month in which he would hit an MLB-record 20 homers.

And, Sammy struck out. And then, Jeff Blauser struck out. Goddamnit.

Rod Beck had pitched the tenth, so why not just have him pitch the eleventh? Sure! Great idea. Magglio Ordonez lined out, and then Beck struck out Kreuter and Mike Cameron.

Beck pitched two innings, struck out three and only threw 22 pitches.

Still tied in the bottom of the 12th, Brant Brown came up again to lead off the inning. Just a week before, he had hit that 11th inning walk-off against the Barves to start the win streak.

And, he did this: (Take it away Hawkeroo...)

https://www.mlb.com/cubs/video/brant-brown-s-walk-off-homer

Future detestable Cub Scott Eyre started the Saturday game for the Sox, and the Cubs had a 4-1 lead in the fourth, which became a 5-4 deficit in the sixth, but Derrick White hit a two run bomb off Eyre to give the Cubs a 6-5 lead. Sammy made it 7-5 with a homer in the seventh. Beck pitched again, allowing a Frank Thomas RBI single in the ninth, but he held on for his 16th save.

He had 16 saves and the Cubs had 36 wins.

The Cubs pounded another Sox pitcher that they would eventually sign, Mike Sirotka. Sirotka was just a year away from his greatest career accomplishment. Allowing a single to Garth Brooks in spring training. The Cubs greeted Sirotka with five in the first, featuring an RBI double by Sammy and a three run jack by Henry Rodriguez. Sirotka ended up allowing eight runs in 2.2 IP, the final one coming on a Geremi Gonzalez single. The Cubs rolled to a 13-7 win, including another Sammy homer.

The streak was at nine and the Cubs were off to Minnesota now tied for first place with the Astros. The pitching matchup was Mark Clark against yet another future Cub, LaTroy Hawkins.

Dempster, Eyre, Karchner, Heredia, LaTroy? No wonder they won ten in a row.

The Cubs did to LaTroy just what you'd hope. Sammy homered off of him in the third (his 20th of the season in just 62 games), and the Cubs scored five runs off of Hawkins on their way to an 8-1 win. Clark allowed just one run on 10 hits! in eight innings.

Kerry Wood faced Brad Radke with a chance to run the streak to 11 the next night and thanks to four walks and two errors, Kerry gave up six runs (two earned) in 3.1 innings in an 8-0 loss. Both errors were on Blauser. Of course.

The Cubs couldn't stand prosperity. They followed up the 10 game win streak by losing 14 of their next 18 and falling to third place, six games behind Houston. But as you know they ended up winning a play-in game over the Giants to win the Wild Card before getting swept in three by the Barves.

We didn't have to wait that long for the next big streak. Just three years later, another upstart bunch mounted the franchise's longest winning streak in 65 years.

On May 19, 2001 the Cubs woke up 21-20. They were following up a terrible second half of 1999 and a terrible entire 2000 season with an eight game losing streak that had dropped them from first place on May 10 to fourth place nine days later.

Kerry Wood outpitched former Cub Miguel Batista of the D'bags in a 6-2 Cubs win. The losing streak was over. Who knew what had just started?

The next day the Cubs took a 6-0 lead to the top of the ninth, and Don Baylor decided to use his closer Tom Gordon anyway. Hell, they hadn't had a save chance for two weeks, why wait for one, now? Flash walked Luis Gonzalez and then Euribel Durazo hit a two run homer to make it 6-2. Jilted Cubs Utility Tunnel of Famer Mark Grace singled. Reggie Sanders walked. Uh oh. Baylor got Gordon and brought in The Farns. Some guy named Craig Counsell doubled to score Grace and make it 6-3. Danny Bautista doubled to score Sanders and Counsell to make it 6-5. Baylor had to bring in The Troll, Jeff Fassero and he got David Dellucci to pop up a bunt to first baseman, former Cub and All-Star Ron Coomer. Tony Womack grounded out and Jay Bell struck out. Phew. Cubs win 6-5.

In the next game, Gordon got an actual save chance and struck out the side in a 5-3 win over the Reds.

Jason Bere started the next night against the Reds but left due to injury in the third with the Cubs down 2-0. Julio Zuleta homered for the Cubs to make it 2-1, and then consecutive RBI singles by Coomer and Matt Stairs (what a pair) in the third gave the the Cubs the lead. Gordon got another save in a 4-2 win.

The Cubs finished off the sweep 3-0 on a Jon Lieber one hitter where he struck out just two, but walked only one on 78 pitches in an hour and 48 minutes. Cool, right?

No. Not cool.

Because while the game lasted just 1:48, it took nearly four hours to play. There was a 97-minute rain delay with one out in the bottom of the fourth, and Lieber stayed in the game. It was asinine.

Lieber went on to have a great year. He won 20 games, finished fourth in Cy Young balloting and then in 2002 he needed Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2003. What kind of asshole lets his ace pitcher come back after an hour and a half rain delay in a "must-win" game in May?

Don Baylor. That's who.

Just listen to how excited Chip got at the end.

https://www.mlb.com/cubs/video/lieber-completes-one-hit-shutout-c2053283683

"History at Chicago's Wrigley Field!" And then when it was time to explain what that history was...just a long pause and the fact that the Reds hadn't been shut out in over a season? Whatever, Chippy. Go put your cone of shame back on.

Anyway, how did the Cubs follow up Lieber's one hitter?

Kerry Wood threw one of his own. In the opener of a three game series at Wrigley against the Brewers, Wood struck out 14, walked two and allowed just a seventh inning leadoff single to Mark Loretta. They needed it, because the Cubs managed just one run of their own, a Rondell White homer in the fourth, off of the great Allen Leverault in a 1-0 win.

Saturday's game was rained out. On Sunday, Kevin Tapani didn't throw a one hitter, but he allowed just one run on six hits in seven innings in a 4-1 win. The big blow for the Cubs was a two RBI double by Joe Girardi in the seventh.

The Cubs went to Cincinnati to start a series and all hell broke loose in game one. A Miguel Cairo error allowed three runs to score with one out in the first (that's a big error). But the Cubs took a 4-3 lead in the third on an RBI single by Sammy and a three run homer by Stairs. Tied at four in the eighth, Sammy doubled with two outs and scored when Coomer reached on an error by Reds' third baseman Brandon Larson. Rondell singled, and Baylor had Kerry Wood pinch run for Coomer at second (that's how slow Coomer was) and Wood scored on a Zuleta single to put the Cubs up 6-5. (I remember that WGN had a great shot after the inning of Wood grabbing his glove and pretending to run out to play first base for Coomer. Zuleta actually took over there.)

The Cubs took that 6-5 lead to the ninth and Flash Gordon struck out Kelly Stinnett and Larson. But then Pokey Reese singled and stole second, and Michael Tucker (who less than two months later would be traded to the Cubs) singled to tie the game.

The Cubs had the bases loaded in the 11th with two outs but Sammy struck out.

Meanwhile Courtney Duncan was dealing for the Cubs out of the bullpen. He took over in the tenth and allowed a one out single, but then retired the next ten Reds in a row.

In the 13th, the Cubs mounted a rally when Girardi reached on a rare Pokey Reese error. Gary Matthews Jr. bunted Girardi to second (Baylor loved sac bunts), and Scott Winchester hit Augie Ojeda. Eric Young singled to score Girardi, and then Ricky Gutierrez hit a two run homer to put the Cubs up 9-6. Duncan finished things off and the Cubs had won eight in a row.

In the second game of the series the Cubs trailed 3-2 in the fourth but scored seven runs to take a 9-2 lead, featuring a bases loaded walk by Gutierrez, a three run double by Sammy and a three run homer by Rondell. (Rondell was soooo good.) The Cubs won 10-5 behind seven innings from Bere.

In the finale, Lieber pitched for the first time since his rain delayed one-hitter and was good. He pitched into the eighth, allowing just one run on five hits. Sammy hit a two run homer in a 3-1 win.

The Cubs went to Milwaukee for a three game series and in the opener they staked Kerry Wood to a 4-0 lead after four (featuring another Rondell White homer) and Wood struck out 10 in 6.1. Flash struck out two in a perfect ninth for a 4-3 win.

In the second game of the series the Cubs trailed 1-o in the third but scored four runs in both the third and fourth featuring homers by Stairs, Sammy and Rondell as they cruised to a 12th straight win 10-4.

The Brewers were a star studded bunch that featured Devon White (really?), Jeffrey Hammonds, Henry Blanco, Ray King, Tyler Houston, Jose Hernandez and Jeromy Burnitz.

The streak ended in the series finale when Julian Tavarez ran into trouble in the third inning and allowed RBI hits to Geoff Jenkins, Burnitz and Hernandez and the Brewers held on for a 4-2 win.

The Cubs had been in first place on May 10, then lost eight in a row and fell to fourth place, but the 12 wins in a row that followed put them back in first by 3.5 games. Their lead would grow to six games as late as June 22. They were in first place for 112 days, but fell out on August 18 and finished in third behind the Astros and Cardinals, five games out of first.

It would be 14 more seasons before we saw a Cubs' team mount a double digit winning streak.

And oh, what a team it was.

Joe Maddon's plucky 2015 Cubs caught fire late in the season. On July 29 they were 53-47, in third place in the NL Central and 10.5 games out of first. They were just 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot, so we were excited. They were a fun team, clearly getting better and nobody expected them to go to the playoffs that year anyway.

And then...they boat raced the rest of the National League, going 44-18 to finish the season, and not just getting the second wild card spot, they nearly caught the Pirates to host the Wild Card game. They roared the finish winning eight in a row to end the regular season 97-65. The second win of the streak came on an 11th inning walkoff homer by Chris Denorfia to beat the Royals 1-0. The eight wins all came after the Cubs had already clinched their playoff spot. But they didn't care.

They stormed into the playoffs, beat the Pirates in Pissburgh in the Wild Card game, then smacked around the Cardinals in glorious fashion in the NLCS, which gives us an excuse to watch this for the 12 millionth time...it will never, ever get old:

https://www.mlb.com/video/must-c-cubs-advance-to-nlcs-c522811683

They got swept by the Mets in the NLCS, but when they opened the 2016 season, they were riding that eight game regular season streak that they had ended the 2015 season on.

You probably remember the first three games of the 2016 season. (If you don't, you can read all about it in The Immortals.

The Cubs opened in Anaheim against the Angels and smoked Mike Trout and Albert Pujols and the boys 9-0 behind Jake Arrieta's seven innings of two hit, six strikeout ball.

The next night Jon Lester went seven innings of four-hit, one run baseball and the Cubs got homers by Matt Szczur and Anthony Rizzo to win 6-1.

You remember the first game in Arizona for the collision where Kyle Schwarber ran into Dexter Fowler and tore every ligament in his knee. But what you might not remember is that the D'bags scored three runs in that first inning off John Lackey, and tacked on three more runs by end of the third, but it didn't phase the Cubs, who put up five runs in the fourth to take a 9-6 lead on their way to a 14-6 win. They finished with 14 runs on 14 hits and 10 walks!

The two-season, 11 game win streak crashed to an end when Pedro Strop allowed a game tying single to Paul Goldschmidt in the eighth, and Yasmany Thomas (remember him?) singled off Big Trev Cahill in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 Arizona win.

The Cubs wouldn't let the loss slow them down, they won their next five in a row to start the season 8-1. They went on to win 25 of their first 31 games.

But does a two-season, 11 game winning streak really mean anything? The 2016 Cubs decided to just have their own. You might not remember when the streak happened, but you certainly remember the game it started with.

Just a few iconic moments in that one. Brian Matusz's only Cubs start, Travis Wood in left field, Willson Contreras using his speed to keep the game alive in the ninth and then making a terrific catch in left, and of course, Jon Lester's walk-off bunt.

Yet another future Cub, Steve Cishek threw a wild pitch that scored the tying run, and then, just a few nights later the fourth game of the streak ended with a three run ninth inning rally capped by a two out bases loaded walk drawn by Ben Zobrist to tie it and then a walk-off wild pitch by the Marlins' AJ Ramos that scored Szczur to win it.

The Cubs swept the Marlins, then flew to Oakland for a three game set and outscored the A's 14-3 in that sweep, then they were back to Wrigley for three with the Angels who they outscored 11-3.

They faced the Cardinals at home to start a four game series with a chance to win their 10th in a row.

It was Jon Lester v. Carlos Martinez and the Cardinals led 2-0 in the sixth. Martinez had allowed just one hit through five and then...he went full Carlos Martinez meltdown.

Kris Bryant singled, Rizzo singled, Zobrist struck out, Addison Russell hit a foul pop up to first, but then Jason Heyward reached on an infield hit to third baseman Jhonny Peralta. That kept the inning alive for Chris Coghlan, and take a moment to think about what immediately comes to mind when you think Chris Coghlan embarrassing the Cardinals. And no, it's not the time he leapt over Yadi to score a run, because he did that as a Blue Jay.

No. Coghlan's most iconic Cubs-Cardinals moment happened, incredibly, right here.

Muahahahahaha! Of course it did.

The Cubs took the lead one batter later when David Ross hit a sac fly to score Heyward. But Wood allowed a tying homer to Randal Grichuk in the seventh. It would have been a lead changing homer, but Jedd Gyorko had singled to open the inning and then Wood picked him off first. Where did that fat fucker think he was going to go?

The game went to the 11th and the Cardinals had the bases loaded with two outs but Mike Montgomery struck out Matt Carpenter to get out of it.

And then in the bottom, the Cubs loaded the bases against Zach Duke with two outs, and Rizzo drew a game winning walk to score Contreras.

The streak went to 10 and the Cubs had won games with a walkoff squeeze, a walkoff wild pitch and a walkoff walk.

The next night Arrieta faced off with Adam Wainwright and the Cubs did things to Wainwright that are illegal in several southern states. He pitched two innings, allowed six hits, walked three and allowed seven earned runs including a three run homer by Contreras. The Cubs won 13-2.

The next day the game was tied at two in the eighth when Carl Edwards Jr. crapped all over the mound. He faced seven batters, walked four of them and even when he got his only out by striking out Yadi it was on a wild pitch that scored a run. Carl was charged with six earned runs and the Cubs lost 8-2.

Their 11-game winning streak was the longest of the season, but the season had plenty of winning streaks. They had five streaks of at least five in a row that year.

And if I remember right, the whole thing ended with a pretty memorable three game winning streak in the World Series.

So, what does this mean for the 2026 Cubs and their 10-game winning streak? Nothing really.

But it is a good sign that in recent years, the Cubs and double digit win streaks have meant that team was a real threat.