FanPost

Cubs' batting streaks other than hits, homers

You may know that Jerome Walton had the longest hitting streak by a Cub in the Modern Era: 31 games, in 1989.

You may even know that only 3 Cubs ever hit home runs in 5 straight games: Hack Wilson (1928), Ryne Sandberg (1989) and Sammy Sosa (1998).

But it's unlikely you know any of these longest streaks in Cubs history -- I certainly didn't until I researched them!

RUNS SCORED

15: Hank Sauer, 1953-54

His streak began in the final 2 games of 1953, wins at home over the Cardinals.

On Opening Day of 1954, at St. Louis, Sauer went hitless, but walked 3 times and scored 2 runs.

He hit a solo homer 2 days later at home vs. the Reds, then 3 times in the third game of the season, a 23-13 rout of the Cardinals.

After that, Sauer scored 1 or 2 runs in 9 more games. In 4 of them, his lone run came on a homer, including Game 1 of a May 2 doubleheader against the Pirates at Wrigley Field.

...

In Game 2, Sauer homered leading off the second inning, walked and was stranded in the third, homered with a man on i9n the fifth, singled and scored in the seventh, and doubled and scored in the eighth.

The game was called due to darkness following that inning.

His impressive line for the day:

4 AB, 4 R, 4 H, 3 RBI, 1 BB

Despite his heroics, the Cubs lost badly. Pittsburgh scored 8 runs in the top of the first, led 15-2 midway through the fourth and coasted to an 18-10 victory.

...

The Cubs were idle the next 2 days, then Sauer's streak came to an end in an 0-7 loss to the Dodgers. He went 1 for 4, a single leading off the sixth, which was followed immediately by an around-the-horn double play.

During his 15 games, Sauer scored 23 runs. He slashed .386/.485/.912, for an OPS of 1.398. He made 22 hits, including 3 doubles and 9 homers; walked 11 times; and struck out 12.

He never scored in more than 7 straight games during his 15-season, 1,399-game big league career.

...

The second-longest run-scoring streak by a Cub is 12 games, by Kiki Cuyler, in 1929.

6 batters have scored in 11 straight, but none since Rick Monday in 1976.

18 have done it in 10 consecutive games, 4 of them in the past half century: Sammy Sosa (1998), Matt Stairs (2001), Mark DeRosa (2008) and Starlin Castro (2011).

SINGLES

22: Stan Hack, 1945

Hack was 35, in the 14th of his 16 seasons, all as a Cub, when he put together his streak of singles between July 22 and Aug. 12.

The first 10 games were at home: a doubleheader split with the Phillies, then 6 straight wins before wins and losses, both by 1-0, against the Pirates.

Then came 5 games at Cincinnati and 5 at Boston, followed by a Sunday sweep at Philadelphia that made the Cubs 17-5 during Hack's streak.

He had 32 singles in those games, plus 7 doubles and a triple, as he went 40 for 95, plus 13 walks, with only 5 strikeouts. His slash line was .421/.491/.516, 1.007. His batting average on balls in play was .444.

...

In the 2 games before the singles streak began, Hack made 3 singles, then a pair of doubles.

So his 0 for 4 in a 4-1 win over the Phillies on Aug. 13 snapped a 24-game hitting streak. That matched his career high, set in 1942.

The Cubs have had only 6 longer hitting streaks: the 30 by Walton, 28 by Ron Santo (1966), 27 by Hack Wilson (1929) and Glenn Beckert (1968), 26 by Beckert (1973) and 25 by Wilson (1927).

Sparky Adams (1927) and Gabby Hartnett (1937) also had hits in 24 straight games.

...

Jigger Statz is a distant second to Hack in consecutive games with singles: 17, in 1922.

Billy Williams had 16 in a row in 1962. So did Joe Vizcaino, in 1993.

8 others had runs of 15 games, including Hack, in 1944.

Mark Grace had 15 twice, in 1991 and 1997.

DOUBLES

8: Derrek Lee, 2007

Lee's streak began on April 23, when he doubled and singled twice in a 12-inning, 4-5 loss at home to the Brewers.

He doubled and singled in another loss the next day, then smacked 2 doubles among 4 hits as the Cubs won the series finale.

After a day off, Lee doubled in 2 wins at St. Louis, adding a single in the second. A third game was postponed due to the death of the Cardinals' Josh Hancock.

The Cubs lost the first of 3 games at Pittsburgh, despite Lee's double and single.

In the second game, he went 4 for 5, with 2 doubles. The second in the seventh inning, which began with the Cubs behind, 2-5.

After 2 outs, a single and back-to-back doubles by Matt Murton and Alfonso Soriano made the score 4-5, then Cliff Floyd homered, putting the Cubs in front.

Lee doubled, prompting an intentional walk, which was followed by an inning-ending forceout.

Moments later, the rain that had persisted throughout the evening suddenly intensified and the game was suspended, to be finished the next day.

When it was, Lee contributed an RBI single to the Cubs' 8-6 triumph. Then he doubled in the first inning of the regular game and added a single later in the Cubs' 7-1 win.

His doubles streak came to an end 2 days later, at home against the Nationals. But he singled and homered as the Cubs embarked on a 3-game sweep of Washington.

...

In his 8 games with doubles, Lee slashed .541/.564/.892, for an OPS of 1.456. His BAbip was .633.

He amassed 20 hits, including 8 doubles and a homer, in 37 at bats. He walked twice and struck out 6 times.

The doubles streak came in games 4-11 of a 17-game hitting streak. Oddly, he had no doubles in any of the 3 games that began the hitting streak of the 6 that ended it.

...

Lee is the only Cub ever to make a double in more than 5 straight games, a number achieved 21 times, each by a different batter, including Lee, in 2004.

3 have reached 5 games since Lee's 8-game streak: Geovany Soto and Aramis Ramirez, both in 2008, and Frank Schwindel in 2021.

TRIPLES

4: Billy Williams, 1963, and Sammy Sosa, 1994

You might have expected this record to belong to someone from an earlier era, when triples were more common, such as Frank Schulte, the Cubs' leader since 1901, with 117, or Joe Tinker, No. 3, with 93. Phil Cavarretta had 99.

Williams had 87, ranking sixth; Sosa, 32, tied for 37th.

...

Williams tripled and singled in back-to-back wins at home over the Pirates on May 8-9, then had a triple as his only hit in consecutive losses at Houston May 10-11.

His fourth straight game broke the team record of 3 in a row that had been established by Johnny Kling in 1903 and tied 13 times, each by a different player, most recently by Williams in 1961.

The 4-game streak ended when he singled in another loss the next day.

Prior to the streak, Williams had no triples in 25 games. After it, he did not hit another triple for 20 games. He finished the season with 9, in 161 games, during which he batted 687 times.

...

Sosa's record-tying 4 games is the only streak of more than 3 since Williams set the mark in 1963.

Sosa had 1 triple in 30 games before he tripled for his only hit in a loss at home to the Marlins on May 14, 1994. The next day, his triple and 2 singles were half the Cubs' hits as they were blanked, 0-3.

The Cubs produced a bizarre version of a "natural cycle" when they hosted the Padres 24 hours later. In the sixth inning, Mark Grace singled. Derrick May followed with a double . . . play. Then Sosa triple and Steve Buechele homered. The Cubs went on to win, 4-2.

The next day, they fell behind, 0-3, midway through the third inning before erupting for 7 runs, the last 3 on a homer by Sosa. Then he tripled home the last of 3 runs in the fourth. The final score was 11-4.

When the Cubs completed the series sweep, Sosa went 0 for 3, with 2 strikeouts, and walked once, ending his triples binge.

He did not hit another triple for 69 games, until Aug. 9.

The Cubs lost that game to the Giants. They lost the next day, too. Then a strike halted the season and it never was resumed.

RUNS BATTED IN

17: Ray Grimes, 1922

A lot of baseball fans these days disparage RBI as a measure of a player's value, arguing that some players have many more opportunities to collect RBI than their teammates.

Perhaps baseball needs to introduce RBI average: percentage of runners in scoring position driven home.

Because each RBI produces a run, and runs are what win games.

Grimes' 17-game streak, a century ago, dwarfs the second-longest in Cubs history: 11, by Hack Wilson, in 1930, the year he set the still-standing record of 191 RBI.

In 1928, Wilson had a 10-game streak. So did Rogers Hornsby, in 1929.

The only double-digit RBI streak since 1930 also was 10 games, by Moises Alou, in 2004.

...

Grimes, a first baseman, played 1 game for the Red Sox in 1920, then was sold after the season to the Cubs.

He quickly became a star, slashing .321/.406/.499 in 1921, then .354/.442/.572 in 1922. He knocked in 79 runs the first year and 99 the second.

But Grimes was prone to injuries.

His RBI streak began on June 27, 1922, in Game 2 a doubleheader. It reached 11 games on July 8, in a sweep of the Braves. But in the second game, Grimes singled home a first-inning run, then departed, having wrenched his back. He missed the next 9 games.

Grimes celebrated his return on July 18 by going 4 for 4, with 2 singles, a double, a home run and 2 RBI.

He drove in 1 run the next day, then 3, 1, 4 and 2.

In the 4-RBI game, he singled, doubled and tripled.

His streak ended on July 25, when he went 0 for 3, plus a walk.

During the streak, Grimes collected 27 RBI while batting .439/.493/.758, 1.251. His BAbip was .464.

He had 29 hits, among them 8 doubles, 2 triples and 3 homers. He walked and struck out 7 times each.

Grimes ended 1922 with an OPS+ of 159. It was 114 in 1923 and 133 in 1924, but he played only 64 and 51 games in those seasons. He was sidelined from May 27 until Aug. 6 in the first year, and from May 31-June 20 in the second.

He went 1 for 3, plus 2 walks, on July 8, in what proved to be his last game as a Cub. He was placed on waivers, then sold to Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League.

Grimes played 32 games during 2 months with the Phillies in 1926, then spent 4 seasons in the minors before retiring after 1930, at age 36.

WALKS

14: Frank Chance, 1903

How impressive is that streak?

In the last 75 years, the longest such streak by any Cub is 9 games, by Gary Matthews Jr. in 2001.

Sammy Sosa had an 8-game stretch in 2002, as did Miguel Montero in 2015.

Besides Chance, only 4 Cubs had a double-digit walk streak: Tommy Leach (12, in 1913-14), Kiki Cuyler (11, 1929), Stan Hack (11, 1946) and Dode Paskert (10, 1918).

Cuyler had a .314 batting average during his streak; Hack, .303.

Leach's average was just .189, as he went 7 for 37.

Chance's slash line was .240/.441/.340. He made 4 hits in 1 game (2 singles, a double and a triple) and just a total of 8 (7 singles and a double) in the 13 others, making him 12 for 50.

3 of his 18 walks came in 1 game. He had 2 in 2 others.

He struck out only twice.

The streak began on May 9 and lasted through May 27. The next day, he went 0 for 5, with a strikeout.

STRIKEOUTS

24: Don Cardwell, 1960-61, and Bill Hands, 1968

Both were pitchers, of course.

Cardwell struck out 39 times in 66 at bats. He made 10 hits, including 3 doubles and 2 homers, for a .152 batting average.

Hands whiffed 37 times in 58 at bats, managing only 4 singles, for an .069 average.

Both walked 3 times.

The longest such streak among position players is 23 games, by Javier Baez: his final 22 games of 2014, Sept. then his first of 2015, on Sept. 1.

Baez struck out 45 times in 94 at bats, with 1 double and 2 homers among 14 hits. That made his batting average .149, 3 points lower than Cardwell's. His slugging average was lower, too, .223 to .288, as was his OPS, .454 to .476!

Baez also had a 20-game strikeout streak in 2017.

Patrick Wisdom fanned in 20 consecutive games in 2021 and Christopher Morel did the same this year.

Those are the only 6 strikeout streaks of at least 20 games by a Cub. Dave Kingman had streaks of 19 and 18. Sammy Sosa had a streak.

The most by any other position player is 15.

Among pitchers, Jake Arrieta and Matt Clement went 18 games; Dennis Eckersley, 17; and Hippo Vaughn, 16.

Vaughn held the record among all Cubs batters until Cardwell surpassed him in 1960.

OTHER STREAKS

Stolen Bases

Davey Lopes swiped bases in 6 straight games in 1985.

Until then, the team record was 5, by 8 players, all between 1901 and 1926.

Since Lopes set the record, there have been 3 more streaks of 5 games, but none in a third of a century. Chico Walker did it in 1986, then Jerome Walton and Mitch Webster in 1989.

Hit By Pitch

8 times, a Cub has been "ploinked" in 3 consecutive games. Anthony Rizzo did it twice, in 2015 and 2019.

The others: Harry Steinfeldt (1906), Frank Chance (1910), Leo Gomez (1996), Jeff Blauser (199), Marlon Byrd (2010) and Kris Bryant (2018).

Sacrifice Bunts

The record of 6 games in a row belongs to a Hall of Famer: pitcher Greg Maddux, in 1992.

8 others did it in 5 straight, beginning with Hans Lobert, an infielder, who accomplished the feat in his only 14 games as a Cub in 1905.

Next came Solly Hofman (1908), followed Bob Fisher (1915), Max Flack (1916), Lennie Merullo (1942) and Bill Lee (1942-43).

There wasn't another such streak until Maddux began his run on Aug. 31, 1992 -- 50 years and 10 days after Lee's had begun.

Reliever Kyle Farnsworth joined the 5-gamers in 1999 and infielder Ricky Gutierrez in 2001.

The only streaks of even 4 games since then were by pitchers: Mark Prior, in 2003, and by Ryan Dempster, in 2008 and again in 2010.

Sacrifice Flies

6 Cubs have had a sacrifice fly in 3 consecutive games: Ernie Banks (1963), Clarence Jones (1967), Ryne Sandberg (1990), Andre Dawson (1991), Moises Alou (2004) and Anthony Rizzo (2018).

Yan Gomes and Rafael Ortega had back-to-back games this year.

Hitting into Double Plays

Derrek Lee, in 2008, was the most recent of 8 Cubs who hit into double plays in 4 straight games.

The previous batters were Billy Herman (1939), Billy Jurges (1946), Bill Serena (1952), Randy Jackson (1953), Ron Santo (1960), Don Kessinger (1973) and Todd Zeile (1995).

Kessinger batted .417 (5 for 12) during his streak. The highest average among the 7 others was .250, by Serena. Herman hit .235 and the rest all were at .182 or lower.

Of the 62 times that a Cub hit into double plays 3 games in a row, 4 came this year: Nick Madrigal, in April; Yan Gomes, in June; and Frank Schwindel and Nico Hoerner, in July.

That is the most streaks of 3 or more such games that the Cubs have had in any season. They had 3 streaks in 1951 and 1973.

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