From Monday through Friday of last week, the Cubs did something highly improbable.

They scored a total of just 8 runs in 4 games, without being shut out in any of them, yet managed to win 3 of the 4.

That was because they allowed only 6 runs, 4 of them in 1 game.

How often have the Cubs given up so few runs in 4 consecutive games?

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SPANNING THE GLOBE . . .

To find out, I ran a series of searches at baseball-reference.com, covering all seasons since 1901, first of the Modern Era.

When I was done, I had a list of 619 spans of 4 games in which the Cubs surrendered no more than 6 runs.

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But that list included overlapping spans -- a LOT of overlapping spans.

For example, over 7 straight games, the Cubs may have given up 5 runs in games 1-4, 4 in games 2-5, 6 in games 3-6 and 4 in games 4-7.

I went through the list and, in each group of overlapping spans, kept only the one in which the Cubs allowed the fewest runs. If there was more than one span in an overlap with the same number of runs, I kept the one with the earliest dates, such as for games 2-5 in the example.

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Doing so chopped the list nearly in half, to 319 non-overlapping spans of 4 games with no more than 6 runs.

That is an average of fewer than 3 times per season.

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DEAD BALL DOMINANCE

But, as you might expect, the 319 spans were not distributed evenly.

In the Dead Ball Era, 1901-20, there were 117, more than one third of the total.

The last of the 117 was 5 runs in games played June 12-19, 1920.

The Cubs did not record 117 more such spans for nearly 53 years, until they allowed 4 runs on May 23-27, 1973.

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They had only 16 spans in the rest of the 1920s, but 29 in the 1930s, something of a surprise in that high-scoring decade.

They had 25 in the 1940s, 24 in the 1960s, then no more than 19 in the next 4 decades, through the 2000s.

In the 2010s, the Cubs have 31 spans, most in the Live Ball Era.

They had just 7 in 2010-14, including none in 2011.

Their year-by-year totals from 2015-19: 6, 8, 4, 4 and 2.

So far in the 2020s, the Cubs have had 7.

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2 TIMES 3

Last week's span was their second this season. The allowed 5 runs in their 4 games April 15-18, when they lost at home to the Dodgers, 2-1; beat them, 3-2; then won at Oakland, 10-1 and 4-0.

They also had 2 spans in 2021 and 2022.

During the second span last year, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, the Cubs yielded just 3 runs, as they beat the Phillies, 2-0, then swept the visiting Reds, 6-1, 2-1 and 8-1.

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BREAKDOWN BY RUNS ALLOWED

Here is how many spans the Cubs have had in which they gave up a specific number of total runs, with the last season in which they had such a span in parentheses after the number of times:

1: 7 (1943)

2: 15 (2018)

3: 43 (2022)

4: 61 (2022)

5: 83 (April 15-18)

6: 110 (May 29-June 2)

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The most recent 4-run span was the Cubs' seventh this century. The first of those, July 29-Aug. 1, 2000, came nearly 24 years since their last of the previous century, Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 1976.

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2-RUN SPANS

Sunday, July 4, 1976, was the nation's bicentennial. The Cubs marked the event in New York, where they played a doubleheader against the Mets.

They lost the first game, 9-4, but won the second, 4-2. Then they flew home, where they blanked the Padres the next 3 days, 1-0, 4-0 and 10-0.

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The Cubs' only 2-run span since then was April 26-29, 2018, when they swept 4 games at home against the Brewers, 1-0, 3-2, 3-0 and 3-2.

6 of the earlier 2-run spans came in 1905-19. The 5 in the Live Ball Era before 1976 were in 1933, 1935, 1936, 1942, 1948, 1969 and 1971.

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1-RUN SPANS

The first 3 of the 7 spans in which the Cubs posted 3 shutouts and gave up 1 run in the remaining game were in 1905-07.

The next 2 were in 1917 and the following year.

The second of those was June 25-29, 1918. Over the next quarter century, they did it just once, July 13-16, 1936.

The last such span consisted of 4 games over 3 days, July 23-25, 1943.

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Here are the scores of each of the 1-run spans:

Aug. 5-7, 1905: 6-0 and 5-1 vs. Boston in doubleheader, then 8-0 vs. Boston and 4-0 vs. Giants

July 1-4, 1906: 1-0 and 0-1 vs. Reds, day off, then 1-0 and 1-0 in holiday doubleheader at Pittsburgh

June 20-23, 1907: 4-0 vs. Boston, then 2-0, 3-0 and 2-1 vs. Cardinals

May 12-16, 1917: 1-0 at Brooklyn, day off, then 6-0, 8-1 and 8-0 at Boston

June 25-29, 1918: 14-0 and 1-0 vs. Cardinals, then 7-1 and 2-0 at Cincinnati

July 13-16, 1936: 1-0 and 6-1 vs. Giants, then 2-0 and 1-0 vs. Boston

July 23-25, 1943: 5-0 vs. Boston, then 2-0 and 2-0 vs. Giants in doubleheader

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Note that 5 of the 7 spans included games against Boston, and in those 5, Boston had 4 different nicknames. It was the Beaneaters in 1905, the Doves in 1907, the Braves in 1917 and 1943, and the Bees in 1936.

In 1911, when Boston was called the Rustlers, the Cubs held them to 5 runs in 3 games in late July, but gave up 2 in the last game before the series began and 3 in the first game after it ended, for spans of 7 and 8 runs!

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NO-RUN SPANS

The Cubs never have had 4 consecutive shutouts. Other teams have had 4 or more 18 times.

The most recent to do it was the Giants, who had 4 straight, June 25-28, 2012.

The previous streak lasted 5 games, by the Orioles, Sept. 26-Oct. 1, 1995.

The Orioles also had the only other 5-game streak, Sept. 2-6, 1974.

The Pirates hold the record of 6 straight shutouts, set 120 years ago, June 2-8, 1903.

11 of the 18 streaks were by National League teams. Only 1 streak included games against the Cubs.

The Phillies won at St. Louis, 2-0 and 7-0, on July 25-26, 1951, then blanked the Cubs at Wrigley Field the next 2 days, 2-0 and 1-0.