It took 13 innings, but the Cubs get a walk-off home run from Javier Báez for a 4-3 win and Chicago continues to roll. They sweep the Nationals in the four game series and go to 24-6 on the season, thanks to a seven game win streak. The seven games were against the Pirates and the Nationals. Pittsburgh was expected to contend for the NL Central title, while the Nationals came into Chicago in first place in the NL East. If St. Louis, another division contender, is added in, the Cubs are 9-1 against three very good teams.
A strategy that worked for the Cubs today was to put Bryce Harper on base. In seven plate appearances he walked six times and was hit by a pitch once. He did score on a Ryan Zimmerman double after one of those walks, but Zimmerman went one for seven for the day, blowing a number of chances to put the Nationals ahead late. Twice Harper was walked with men on first and second and two out, and Zimmerman ended the inning.
Jake Arrieta does not get a decision, so his undefeated streak remains intact. He allowed three runs today, tied for the most he allowed in any game during the streak.
Update: The Day by Day Database goes back to 1957, but I cannot find a game in which a player record 0 AB with at least seven plate appearances. The most I see is five, done 44 times in that period. The last person to do that was Steven Souza on 6/15/2015. Harper may have set some kind of record today. Barry Bonds had three games in which he had five PA and no at bats, and reached by a walk or HBP in all five appearances. So Harper did something Bonds never did.
Update: It was a record.
Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper set a Major League Baseball record in Sunday’s 13-inning loss to the Chicago Cubs by reaching base seven times at Wrigley Field without an official at-bat, according to Elias Sports Bureau research.
Harper also matched the major league record for walks in a game with six, last done by Jeff Bagwell in 1999. Harper was hit by a pitch the other time he came to the plate.
The only other player to reach base six times in a game without an at bat in the last 100 years was Jimmie Foxx, who did so on June 16, 1938. Foxx had six plate appearances, all walks, in that game.
So the Cubs have played .800 baseball for 30 games… it will be interesting to see how this plays out, whether they can challenge Seattle’s record of 116 wins.
Playing .800 ball for stretches is certainly not unheard of, though. The Pirates last year, just to name 1 example, played at an .800 clip for 25 games in May-June (and finished with 98 wins). The Dodgers, in Puig’s rookie year of 2013, played .840 (42-8) for a 50-game stretch!
Tim » What is interesting about the Cubs is that on paper, before the season started, they looked like a 110 win team. In that way, they remind me more of the 1998 Yankees than the 2001 Mariners. The Mariners had lost Griffey and Rodriguez, Ichiro was an unknown, and Brett Boone’s career was disappointing up to that point. The 1998 Yankees looked like world beaters. I remember in spring training writing my pre-season Yankees notes for ESPN, and noticing how strong the Yankees were up the middle. No team could match them at all four of C, 2B, SS, and CF. In addition, the front line starters and closer were also outstanding. They blew everyone away in the season and the post season.
So far, the Cubs are living up to these expectations. It doesn’t mean they will for the whole season, but it’s nice to see a prediction on it’s way to fruition.