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More about Cubs' peculiar home run streak

By now, you're probably well aware of my fascination with the Cubs' streak of hitting home runs only with the bases empty or 1 runner aboard.

That streak stands at 70 homers since Matt Duffy's 3-run shot at Detroit on May 15, 52 games ago.

The Cubs have sent 1,890 batters to the plate without duplicating Duffy's feat.

Since May 16, the 29 other Major League teams have hit 181 homers with 2 on base, plus 68 grand slams, for a total of 249 homers with multiple men scoring ahead of the batter.

They have hit those 249 homers while playing 1,476 games, so they have averaged 1 homer with at least 2 aboard every 6 games, while the Cubs are 0 for 70!

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CUBS' LONGEST STREAK BY FAR

I first wrote about the Cub' current streak nearly a month ago, when it stood at 53.

Before writing that post, I went through the Cubs' yearly Home Run Log for every season from 1950 through 2020, plus the only 3 seasons before 1950 in which they hit at least 100 home runs.

I found another 53-homer streak of solo or 2-run homers, in 1953, but only 1 longer streak: 57 homers, in 2014.

They had only 1 other streak of even 40 homers, in 2016.

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I have now extended the search to every single season of the Modern Era in which the Cubs hit at least 70 home runs -- 95 seasons in all.

From 1901-49, the Cubs had 23 seasons in which they hit between 71 and 99 homers. Their longest streak of homers without multiple runners on base in any of those seasons came in in 1942.

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HALF THE SEASON WITHOUT 3-RUN

On July 5, in Game 2 of a doubleheader at St. Louis, Bill Nicholson homered with 2 aboard to pull the Cubs to within 5-4. Lou Stringer, up next, hit a homer to tie the game.

The Cubs then allowed 6 runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to lose, 11-6.

Nicholson's homer was the Cubs' 37th of the year. Stringer's was the first of 38 in a row with the bases empty (26) or 1 on (12).

The streak came to an end only because the season did.

Nicholson and Paul Gillespie hit solo homers in the eighth inning of another 11-6 loss, at Boston, on Sept. 13, then the Cubs did not hit any homers in their final 11 games.

The July 5 game had been their 79th game. They did not hit a 3-run homer, or a grand slam, in their last 76 games!

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Those 38 straight homers with 0 or 1 on in 1942 was the team record until 1983, when the Cubs hit 39 in a row.

The previous record had been 33 in a row, in 1927. That streak, too, lasted through the final day of the season.

Their last multiple-runner homer that year came on June 22, when Hack Wilson slammed a 3-run shot off Grover Cleveland Alexander at St. Louis.

That was the Cubs' 41st homer of the season, in their 60th game. Over the next 96 games, they hit 21 with the bases empty and 12 with 1 aboard. The 12th 2-run homer was their last of the season. It was Hack Wilson's league-leading 30th -- exactly half the all-time record 60 hit that season by Babe Ruth.

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82 STREAKS OF AT LEAST 20 HOMERS

In all, the Cubs have had 82 streaks in which hit at least 20 consecutive homers, each with 0 or 1 or base, including 15 that lasted at least 30 homers.

But their active streak of 70 is a whopping 13 homers, or 23 percent, longer than any that came before.

It is more than double all but 7 of the 81 other streaks.

It is nearly 3 times the average of those 81 others, 25 homers.

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LONGEST BY ANY TEAM?

Is the Cubs' streak of 70 straight homers that scored 1 or 2 runs an all-time record?

Alas, that question is not easily answered.

As noted, to determine the team record for the Cubs, I had to go through baseball-reference.com's Home Run Log for each season, one by one. With all of the season's homers in chronological order, I did a search that highlighted the number "3" in the RBI column for each homer, then looked for long stretches without a 3, ignoring any that had a "4," indicating a grand slam.

To discover the Major League record, I would have to do the same for each of the 29 other teams, season by season.

Including 2021, MLB teams have hit at least 300 home runs in 2 seasons (2019 Twins and Yankees), at least 200 in 202 total seasons, at least 100 in 1,658 seasons, and at least 70 in 2,006!

That is far too many to pore through!

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NO TEAM CLOSE TO CUBS THIS YEAR

But I did examine all the home runs hit by the 29 other teams so far this season.

No team has come anywhere close to the Cubs' streak of 70 homers, all with 0 or 1 on base.

The second-longest streak is 44 homers, 37 percent less than that of the Cubs. The team that did it was the Brewers.

Oddly, of their first 10 homers of the season, 5 came with 2 aboard, 3 against the Cubs, then 2 against the Cardinals. The last of those 5 came April 11, in the Brewers' 9th game.

They didn't hit another multiple-runner homer until their 50th game, on May 27. In between, they hit 29 solo homers and 15 that scored 2 runs.

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Five other teams have had streaks this season of at least 30 homers:

36: Pirates (24 solo, 12 2-run)

35: Reds (23, 12)

33: Athletics (24, 9)

30: Cardinals (21, 9)

30: Cleveland (18, 12)

If the Cubs fail to hit a 3-run homer on Friday at Arizona, their streak will be 71 games: equal to the third- and fourth-longest streaks combined, and more than either of those plus any other streak!

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None of the Tigers' first 30 homers was a 3-run, but 1, their sixth, was a grand slam. Their next 2 homers after their first 3-run homer also were for 3 runs. Then they hit 8 with 0 or 1 on, a grand slam, 10 with 0 or 1 on, a 3-run, 22 with 0 or 1, a 3-run, and 8 with 1 or 2 before another 3-run, for an extended streak of 53 homers, of which only 3 were for more than 2 runs!

The Twins had a streak of 29 homers with 0 or 1 on.

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PALES IN COMPARISON

The Angels, Brewers and Orioles have had streaks of 27 homers. The Orioles' streak, going back to a 3-run homer on June 18, is the longest active streak other than the Cubs'.

The Athletics have an active streak of 25, since June 19.

The next-longest active streak is 17 homers, by the Royals, since June 28.

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The Blue Jays, Padres and Royals all have had streaks of 26 homers. The streaks by the Padres and Royals both came at the start of the season.

The Mets began the year with 23 straight homers with 0 or 1 on base; the Blue Jays, 21.

In all, there have been 30 streaks so far this season of least 20 consecutive homers with nobody or 1 on base.

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TEAMS WITH MULTIPLE STREAKS

The Angels have had 3 of those streaks: 27, 23 and 20 homers.

The Athletics also had 3: 33, 25 and 20.

Seven more teams have had a pair of streaks that reached 20 homers: the Brewers (44 and 27), Reds (35 and 20), Tigers (29 and 22), Twins (29 and 21), Orioles (27 and 22), Blue Jays (26 and 21) and Yankees (24 and 21).

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The Cubs' second-longest streak of 1- or 2-run homers this season was 16 homers, to begin the season.

They are among 10 teams whose only such streak was at least 20 homers. The others are the Pirates (36), Cardinals (30), Cleveland (30), Padres (27), Royals (26), White Sox (26), Mets (23), Diamondbacks (21) and Rangers (21).

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That leaves 11 teams that never have hit as many as 20 consecutive homers without hitting a 3-run homer: the Nationals and Rockies (both 18), the Astros and Rays (both 17), the Braves (15), the Mariners (13, 3 times!), the Giants and Marlins (both 12), the Phillies and Red Sox (both 11), and the Dodgers (10).

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ANGELS' STREAKS INCLUDING SLAMS

The Angels' 27-homer streak began after a grand slam. They had hit 8 homers with 0 or 1 on before the slam, they had a lone 3-run homer among 36 consecutive homers.

The Angels had a a separate streak of 23 solo or 2-run homers. That streak ended with a grand slam. They then hit 20 more solo or 2-run, followed by a grand slam, and have hit 13 more solo or 2-run since then, for an active streak of 58 homers without a 3-run blast.

None of the Cubs' last 85 homers has been a grand slam, since Kris Bryant cleared the bases at Atlanta on April 26, 68 games ago. They had only 1 3-run homer after that, on May 2, by Ian Happ, at Cincinnati, before Duffy hit their most recent 3-run shot, on May 15 at Detroit.

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MISCELLANY

The Braves hit 45 consecutive homers without a 3-run homer between April 26 and May 23, but 4 of the 45 were grand slams.

The Pirates' streak of 36 straight homers without multiple runners aboard spanned 54 games. It began on April 18 and did not end until June 19, when Michael Perez homered with 2 on in the fifth inning against Cleveland. After 2 walks and a strikeout, Bryan Reynolds also hit a 3-run homer!

The Brewers' 27-homer streak also ended when they hit 2 in the same inning, the eighth, on June 28, both off Trevor Megill of the Cubs.

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Since the Cardinals' 30-homer streak ended on June 23, they have hit 9 straight solo or 2-run homers, then a grand slam, followed by 7 more solo or 2-run homers, for an active stretch in which they have only 1 of their last 48 home runs has come with 2 on base.

The Twins had a stretch in which only 2 of 58 homers came with 2 on base.

Just 3 of the Athletics' last 88 home runs has produced 3 runs.

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The White Sox's 26 straight homers of 0 or 1 run came after a grand slam that was preceded by 9 for 0 or 1 run. They hit 36 homers between 3-run homers.

The Rays went 33 homers without a 3-run homer: 4 with 0 or 1 on, a grand slam, 2 with 0 or 1, a grand slam, 15 with 0 or 1, a grand slam, and 9 more with 0 or 1.

The Padres had a streak of 29 homers without a 3-run homer: 13 with 0 or 1, a grand slam, then 15 with 0 or 1.

On July 4, the Padres hit 2 3-run homers. Until then, they had hit just 1 in their previous 49 homers, of which 2 were grand slams.

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SEASON PERCENTAGES

At the All-Star break, Major League teams had hit 3,193 home runs.

Of those, 336 had come with 2 on base, 10.5 percent, and 83 with the bases loaded, 2.6 percent.

Combined, that is 419 multiple-runner homers, 13.1 percent.

But the Cubs had hit only 5 3-run homers and 2 grand slams, for a total of 7, just 6.1 percent of their 114 home runs.

The 29 other teams had hit 331 homers with 2 on and 81 with the bases loaded, for a total of 412 of the 3,079 hit by all other teams. That is 13.4 percent, or more than double the Cubs' percentage.

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