The Chicago Cubs are hitting the road for their final week of the regular season, and if they can get one more victory, they’ll accomplish something that no Cubs team has done in over 80 years.
That achievement is reaching the 100-win plateau, which was last accomplished by the 1935 Cubs squad that won exactly 100 contests. That team ended up losing the World Series to the Detroit Tigers, but this year’s Cubs team is obviously hoping for a better outcome.
To get to that milestone, the Cubs will have to get one victory in their final seven games. They will begin their season-ending road trip with Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates, and then they’ll conclude the season with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark.
Even though there’s no guarantee the Cubs will reach 100 wins, considering that the team will likely rest plenty of players ahead of the postseason, their records against the Pirates and Reds would indicate that they’ll have a great opportunity to hit that plateau.
In 15 games against the Pirates this season, the Cubs have a 12-3 record, scoring 91 runs in those contests. Their numbers are even better against the Reds, with 125 runs scored and a 13-3 record against Cincinnati in 16 games played.
The Cubs will also get two more starts from Kyle Hendricks, including Monday’s game against the Pirates. Hendricks has the best ERA in the National League this season and a 15-8 record, and will be looking to solidify his spot as the second starter in the team’s playoff rotation.
If the Cubs can win their 100th game this week, it would be just the sixth time in the history of the team that they have hit the century mark. If they can win five of their final seven games, they would match the 104-win totals of the 1909 and 1910 Cubs. The team did not go to the World Series in 1909, as they finished in second place in the National League, but they did make the Fall Classic in the 1910 season before losing to the Philadelphia A’s.
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Two other Cubs squads have reached the century mark in wins, doing it in back-to-back seasons in 1906 and 1907. The team set a club record for victories in that 1906 campaign, winning a staggering 116 games, but they fell in the World Series to the Chicago White Sox in the only crosstown World Series between the two clubs.
Out of the five times that the team has won 100 or more games, they’ve won just one World Series, taking home the championship in 1907.
