The Cubs' road trip that begins tonight at San Diego will be their first in 26 years during which they will play at 3 cities in a row in California.
They did it 45 times between 1970, the second season that the Padres existed, and 1997.
In 14 of those 45, the opening series was at San Diego.
In 12 of the 14, the next series was at Los Angeles, as it will be on this trip. But this will be the first time the opponent will be the Angels, not the Dodgers.
The final series will be at San Francisco.
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CUBS' HAPPY PLACE
San Diego is the only National League city where the Cubs have a winning record: 129-123, including 51-50 when they have arrived from Chicago.
The Cubs have winning records on the road against the Angels, Athletics, Mariners, Orioles, Red Sox. They have played no more than 11 games at any of those AL cities.
In first games of series at San Diego, the Cubs are 20-13 when they have come from Chicago and 43-39 overall.
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RARE VISIT
The Cubs have played only 3 previous series on the road against the Angels, in which they went 5-2.
The first, June 11-13, 2004, came between a series at home vs. the Cardinals and a series at Houston.
The next, June 4-5, 2013, came between a pair of weekend series at home vs. the Diamondbacks and Pirates. That's right; the Cubs were off on Monday, played twice at Los Angeles, then were off Thursday.
The Cubs last visited the Angels on April 4-5, 2016, to open the season.
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SORROW BY THE BAY
The Cubs are 160-198 at San Francisco, including 49-66 after arriving from Los Angeles.
They are 156-204 at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers.
Against all 3 NL teams in California combined, the Cubs are 445-525, a winning percentage of .459.
Perhaps surprisingly, that is 19 points higher than their .440 in all road games against other NL teams since 1958, the year the Dodgers and Giants first played in California.
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WEEKEND MILESTONE
Here is how many regular-season games the Cubs have played at each city in California:
367 at Los Angeles (360 vs. Dodgers, 7 vs. Angels)
358 at San Francisco
252 at San Diego
9 at Oakland
That's a total of 986 games.
They also have played 11 games at Seattle, so the third game of the series at San Diego, on Sunday, will be the Cubs' 1,000th regular-season game on the West Coast.
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GAMES IN OTHER CITIES
During the same 66 seasons, 1958-2023, the Cubs have played 997 games at cities on the East Coast:
427 at Philadelphia
382 at New York (374 vs. Mets, 8 vs. Yankees)
109 at Miami
62 at Washington
9 at Boston
8 at Baltimore
...
They have played 1,625 more games since 1958 at cities in the Eastern Time Zone, but not on the East Coast:
561 at Pittsburgh
482 at Cincinnati
279 at Atlanta
250 at Montreal
18 at Detroit
17 at Cleveland
12 at Toronto
5 at Tampa
1 at Williamsport, Pa. (vs. Pittsburgh)
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They have played 1,238 games at parks in the Central Time Zone other than Wrigley Field:
557 at St. Louis
361 at Houston
287 at Milwaukee (207 vs. Brewers, 80 vs. Braves)
69 on the South Side of Chicago
20 at Minnesota
14 at Kansas City
9 at Texas
1 at Dyersville, Iowa (vs. Reds)
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And they have played 197 games at cities in the Mountain Time Zone:
111 at Colorado
86 at Arizona
They also have played 3 games in the Atlantic Time Zone, at San Juan, P.R., against the Expos in 2003, and 2 games at Tokyo, against the Mets in 2000. The Cubs were the home team for the second of the games at Tokyo.
