FanPost

Cubs are weekday, not weekend, warriors

Most people look forward to the weekend.

Cubs players probably should not.

So far this season, they are 18-13 in games played Monday through Friday, but just 3-13 on Saturday and Sunday.

To find out how that compared to their weekday and weekend performances in previous seasons, I went through their results for each season beginning in 2000.

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WINNING WEEKDAYS

In all games this century, the Cubs have won 1,824 and lost 1,844, a winning percentage of .497.

But on weekdays, their percentage is .505, while on weekends, it is .481.

...

On weekdays, it has been above .500 in 12 seasons, with a high of .709 (78-32) in 2016, followed by .641 in 2020 (25-14) and .591 in 2008 and 2017 (both 65-45).

Their weekday lows were .384 in 2002 (43-69), .385 in 2012 (42-67) and .400 in 2006 (44-66).

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LOST WEEKENDS

The Cubs also have won more games than they have lost on weekends in 12 seasons, topped by .627 in 2008 and 2015 (both 32-19) and .618 in 2018 (34-21).

But 2023 so far is the 8th season in which they have won fewer than 40 percent of weekend games.

Their current .188 is barely half their full-season low of .358. They were 19-34 in 2000, 2012 and 2014.

Their other seasons below .400 were last year (.382, 21-34), 2013 (.385, 20-32), 2011 (.392, 20-31) and 2021 (.396, 21-32).

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GETTING TO BE A HABIT

2023 is the 4th straight season in which the Cubs have had less success on weekends than on weekdays.

The difference between their Saturday-Sunday and Monday-Friday winning percentages so far is 393 points (.188 minus .581).

A year ago, it was 113 points (.382 to .495); in 2021, 63 points (.396 to 459); and in 2020, 191 points (.450 to .641).

They were barely better on weekends in 2019, by 14 points, .528 to .514.

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RECORD DIFFERENCE

The 393-point difference so far this year is by far the Cubs' largest in any of the 24 seasons.

Perhaps surprisingly, their second largest gap, 219 points, came in 2016, when they won 103 games.

As mentioned above, they were .709 on weekdays (78-32), but on weekends, they were just .490 (25-26).

They were at least 100 points worse on weekends in 3 more seasons: 191 points in 2020, 137 in 2014 and 113 last year.

In the 13 seasons in which they had a lower percentage on weekends, the average difference was 112 points.

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SMALLER GAP

The average difference was less than half as many, 50 points, in the 11 seasons in which they had a higher winning percentage on weekends.

Their biggest difference in those seasons was 106 points, in 2009, when they were .588 on weekends (30-21) and .482 on weekdays (53-57).

They were 96 points better on weekends in 2002 (.480, 24-26, to .384, 43-69) and 83 points better in 2010 (.519, 27-25, to .436, 48-62).

They were no better than 53 points in any of the 8 other seasons.

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WINS AND LOSSES

The Cubs' record on weekdays since 2000 is 1,256-1,232.

On weekends, it is 568-612.

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If you remove Friday games from weekdays and add them to weekends, their weekend record is 851-908, .484.

Monday through Thursday, the Cubs are 973-936, .510.

On Friday, they are 283-296, a percentage of .489.

On Saturday, they are 289-308, .484.

On Sunday, they are 279-304, .479.

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