The Cubs finished off a sweep of the Orioles today, a very positive start to the second half. Jose Quintana dominated—12 strikeouts and 3 hits in 7 innings—in his first start with his new team, but the big story of the weekend was the Cubs offense. In the three games, they scored 27 runs on 41 hits (and 9 walks), 10 of which were home runs.
As I listened to the game on the drive up to South Haven for vacation, I wondered how many games in a row the Cubs would have to do this before it became historic. And the answer is...a lot more.
Since 1950, 157 teams have scored at least 8 runs on 10 hits or more in four straight games. The Cubs will try to join them tomorrow night against Julio Teheran in Atlanta. 16 of those teams have done it for five consecutive games. And then six teams have done it six times. That leaves the 2001 Indians as the winner with EIGHT. Can you imagine? From April 29 through May 8, the Indians rattled off eight wins in a row while just destroying the Royals and Rays.
2001 Indians
| Date | Score | H/BB | XBH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/29 | 9-2 | 11/6 | 3 |
| 5/1 | 13-2 | 11/5 | 7 |
| 5/2 | 8-4 | 12/4 | 2 |
| 5/3 | 9-4 | 13/4 | 4 |
| 5/4 | 8-6 | 14/5 | 5 |
| 5/5 | 9-4 | 12/2 | 6 |
| 5/6 | 10-3 | 13/4 | 5 |
| 5/8 | 8-4 | 10/5 | 7 |
What's even crazier is that the Indians score 7 and 9 nine runs in the two games before this. The 2001 Indians lineup featured guys like Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Roberto Alomar, Juan Gonzalez, Jim Thome, Ellis Burks, Marty Cordova, and Russell Branyan.
2017 Cubs
| Date | Score | H/BB | XBH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/14 | 9-8 | 10/2 | 8 |
| 7/15 | 10-3 | 16/4 | 5 |
| 7/16 | 8-0 | 15/3 | 5 |
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.