Cubs Stat of the Day: May 2021

MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the Cubs this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.

? Cubs Stat of the Day, April 2021

May 31: Cubs 7, Padres 2 -- Multiple Cubs with multihomer games
Javier Báez and Patrick Wisdom each launched a pair of home runs for the Cubs in the win over the Padres. That made the Cubs the first team in the Majors this season to have two games in which at least two players enjoyed a multihomer showing. Chicago also did so on April 17 against the Braves. In that game, Kris Bryant and Willson Contreras both had a two-homer performance.

May 30: Reds 5, Cubs 1 -- Bryant keeps streaking
Kris Bryant nearly went hitless against the Reds, with three easy grounders in his first three at-bats, but he finally came through with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth. That hit extended Bryant's hitting streak to 12 games, the second-longest active streak in the Majors. It's the longest streak for a Cubs batter since Anthony Rizzo hit safely in 13 straight games in July 2019.

May 29: Cubs 10, Reds 2 -- Bullpen's impressive streak ends
The Cubs' bullpen was bound to have some blemishes on its record eventually. In the sixth inning, manager David Ross brought Rex Brothers on in relief. Brothers got a strikeout but walked the bases loaded, and Keegan Thompson allowed a double that scored two. The second run (charged to Brothers) ended a streak of 38 1/3 consecutive innings in which a Cubs reliever did not allow an earned run. According to Elias, Chicago's 38 1/3-inning stretch is the fifth-longest single-season streak by any bullpen in the divisional era (since 1969).

May 28: Cubs 1, Reds 0 -- Alzolay's no-walk streak ends
Adbert Alzolay managed to get out of jams with a runner on third in each of the first three innings, which he said was another step in his progression as a pitcher. One thing didn't go his way in those innings, though. In the top of the second, Alzolay threw a full-count slider out of the zone to walk Reds third baseman Max Schrock. In doing so, Alzolay ended a streak of 23 2/3 innings without allowing a a free pass. It marked a career best for Alzolay and the longest such stretch for a Cubs pitcher since Yu Darvish went 36 straight innings in 2019.

May 27: Cubs 5, Pirates 3 -- Bullpen locks it down
In the eighth inning of a one-run ballgame, the Pirates put a runner on third with one out, eventually loading the bases on Cubs reliever Dan Winkler. In danger of blowing what was once a four-run lead, Chicago manager David Ross brought Ryan Tepera, who induced an inning-ending groundout before completing a four-out save in the ninth.

In keeping the Bucs scoreless, Tepera extended a franchise-best streak of innings from the 'pen without allowing an earned run to 34 2/3 innings. The previous streak was 34 1/3 innings, set across 2010 and '11.

May 26: Cubs 4, Pirates 1 -- Bryant feeling at home on the road
Despite spending his entire career with the Cubs, Kris Bryant is very comfortable hitting on the road -- and particularly at PNC Park. Following a three-hit showing against the Pirates on Wednesday, Bryant has collected 59 career hits in Pittsburgh. That total is the most he's had at any road ballpark, with his 56 at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park a close second.

May 25: Cubs 4, Pirates 3 -- Cubs reach 40-player plateau faster than ever
When Patrick Wisdom pinch-hit in the eighth inning on Tuesday, he became the 40th player used by the Cubs in 2021. That's the fewest days the club has taken to reach the 40-player mark in a season. It's also just the third time Chicago has used 40-plus players prior to June 15, which served as the Trade Deadline from 1923-85. The last time the Cubs used fewer than 40 players in a season was in the strike-shortened '94 season, when they used 35.

May 23: Cubs 2, Cardinals 1 (10 innings) -- Rare drama for rivals
This marked the first Cubs-Cardinals game that was knotted, 0-0, entering a ninth inning since May 2, 2004. That game was also in St. Louis and ended with a Scott Rolen walk-off single against Cubs reliever Kyle Farnsworth in the 10th inning. This time, it went the Cubs' way on a two-run homer by Javier Báez off Cardinals closer Alex Reyes.

May 22: Cardinals 2, Cubs 1 -- Alzolay's stellar start
Adbert Alzolay took a hard-luck loss on Saturday, but despite the final result, he dominated St. Louis his first time through the order. Alzolay retired the first 10 batters he faced, with nine of the at-bats ending in his slider/sinker combination. His 3 1/3 innings without allowing a baserunner to start the game was his best mark in the 26-year-old's young career.

May 21: Cubs 12, Cardinals 3 -- Joc's big entrance
Joc Pederson introduced himself to the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry in the most powerful way possible. On the first pitch he saw from St. Louis starter Carlos Martínez, Pederson drove the ball a Statcast-projected 409 feet over the wall in right-center. The home run was the Cubs' first on the first pitch of a game since Kyle Schwarber took Clayton Kershaw deep on June 13, 2019, and it was their first first-pitch homer at Busch Stadium since Junior Lake did it against Adam Wainwright on April 12, 2014.

May 20: Cubs 5, Nationals 2 -- Happ's homer surge
The two home runs that Ian Happ launched in the win over Washington gave the Cubs outfielder three homers within his last four hits. In fact, dating back to May 2, Happ has hit at a .393/.414/1.036 clip with five homers in seven games (interrupted by a stint on the injured list). Prior to that stretch, Happ had just one homer to go along with a .139/.292/.177 slash line in his first 25 games of this season.

May 19: Nationals 4, Cubs 3 -- An award-winning matchup
When Cubs righty Jake Arrieta (2015 National League Cy Young Award winner) and Nationals righty Max Scherzer (American League Cy Young winner in '13 and NL winner in '16 and '17) locked horns, it marked the 12th time that a pair of past Cy Young recipients squared off at Wrigley Field. It was the first such matchup of former Cy winners since July 19, 2006, when Houston's Roger Clemens faced the Cubs' Greg Maddux at the Friendly Confines.

May 18: Cubs 6, Nationals 3 -- Bote ready with one out
Baseball statistics can include plenty of randomness, especially when dealing with small samples this early in a season. One example exists within David Bote's production based on outs so far this year. Bote's two-run homer in the win over Washington gave him a .351 (13-for-37) average and .568 slugging percentage with one out this season. He has hit .175 with a .200 SLG with no outs (40 at-bats) and .081 with a .189 SLG with two outs (37 at-bats).

May 17: Cubs 7, Nationals 3 -- A win against Lester
The Cubs were the lone team among the 29 that Jon Lester has faced in his 16 seasons in the Major Leagues without a win against the lefty. That changed in his return to Wrigley Field, where Chicago belted three homers and scored five runs against its former ace. Lester, who appeared in 171 regular-season games for the Cubs from 2015-20, beat the North Siders in his only two previous meetings (May 20, 2011, and June 16, 2012). The Red Sox are the only team Lester has never faced.

May 16: Cubs 5, Tigers 1 -- Hendricks catches Tigers looking
In his eight-plus innings against Detroit, Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks generated a career-high 31 called strikes, per Statcast. His previous high was 29, on April 19, 2019, and Sept. 28, 2017. Hendricks also had seven called strikeouts within his eight punchouts in Detroit. That marked the most called strikeouts by a pitcher in the Majors this season.

May 15: Tigers 9, Cubs 8 (10) -- Duffy's big day
Matt Duffy delivered three hits for the Cubs and notched a few footnotes in the process. Duffy's home run in the fifth was his first blast since Sept. 28, 2019. With a double as well, he had two extra-base hits in a game for the first time since June 9, 2018. And with five RBIs, Duffy had the second five-RBI game of his career, with the last coming on May 12, 2015.

May 14: Cubs 4, Tigers 2 -- Bryant goes oppo
Kris Bryant's two-run homer in the third inning helped him stay near the top of the MLB leaderboard with 10 blasts on the year, but it was a rare opposite-field shot for the slugger. Bryant's home run to right off Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal marked his first shot the other way since July 4, 2019, and his first oppo-field homer off a lefty since June 22, 2015. That homer six years ago was off Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw.

May 12: Indians 2, Cubs 1 (10 innings) -- Joc's locked in
Joc Pederson finished with three hits in the loss in Cleveland, marking a third three-hit showing in a five-game span. That put Pederson into a tie with Kris Bryant for the most three-hit games (three) to this point this season for Chicago. Since coming off the injured list on May 3, Pederson has hit .444/.484/.481 in seven games for the North Siders.

May 11: Indians 3, Cubs 2 -- Alzolay has electric slider
Righty Adbert Alzolay developed his slider last season and has since turned it into one of the elite breaking balls in the Majors. Heading into the opener in Cleveland, Alzolay had limited batters to a .111 average and a .130 slugging percentage with the pitch, per Statcast. Against Cleveland, he had 14 of his 18 whiffs with his new signature pitch. (In the fifth inning, though, second baseman Cesar Hernandez belted a homer off Alzolay's slider, the first blast against the pitch this season.)

May 9: Pirates 6, Cubs 2 -- Joc ends lefty drought
Joc Pederson was not in the starting lineup against lefty Tyler Anderson, but was pressed into duty when Jake Marisnick (right hamstring) exited. In the second, Pederson notched an RBI single off the Pirates' lefty, marking the Cubs outfielder's first RBI off a left-handed pitcher since May 21, 2019. That was a stretch of 719 days between RBIs against lefties, with his last one coming off the Rays' Adam Kolarek while Pederson was with the Dodgers.

May 8: Cubs 3, Pirates 2 -- Get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in
All five of the Cubs' hits in their win over the Pirates were singles. This came after Chicago had nine hits (all singles) in a win over Pittsburgh in the opener of this weekend series. In fact, the Cubs have strung together 16 singles in a row, dating back to their last game against the Dodgers in the previous series. Chicago's last extra-base hit was a double by Javier Báez in the sixth inning of the Cubs' win on May 5.

May 7: Cubs 3, Pirates 2 -- Davies succeeds without missing bats
Zach Davies held the Pirates scoreless through seven innings, but he didn't pile up a bunch of swings and misses in the process. In fact, Davies garnered only one whiff on 38 Pittsburgh swings. That made him the first pitcher since Cincinnati's Mike Leake (Aug. 29, 2014, at Pittsburgh) to throw seven-plus scoreless innings and have no more than one swinging strike.

May 5: Cubs 6, Dodgers 5 (11 innings) -- Sweeping away L.A.
The Cubs swept the Dodgers in a three-game series at Wrigley Field for the first time since May 26-28, 2008. The Dodgers had not been swept in a series of at least three games against any team since April of 2019. In fact, prior to the Cubs' brooming, the Dodgers' 68 consecutive series (three or more games) without being swept was the longest in their franchise's history, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

May 4: Cubs 4, Dodgers 3 (Game 2); Cubs 7, Dodgers 1 (Game 1) -- Down go defending champs
With their two wins over the Dodgers on Tuesday, the Cubs completed a doubleheader sweep over a defending World Series champion for the 13th time in franchise history, according to team historian Ed Hartig. It marked the first such occurrence since July 4, 1980, when the Cubs swept the Pirates in a twin bill. The last time Chicago pulled off the feat at Wrigley Field, specifically, was on July 11, 1965, against the Cardinals.

May 2: Reds 13, Cubs 12 (10 innings) -- Cubs stuff record books
This was just the fifth time in MLB history that both teams scored at least 12 runs and hit at least five home runs in the same game. Astoundingly, the Cubs have been involved in three of the five instances, and a Cubs-Reds matchup has accounted for two of them. They are: Cubs-Reds (May 2, 2021); White Sox-Tigers (May 28, 1995); Phillies-Cubs (May 17, 1979); Reds-Cubs (July 28, 1977); Yankees-Athletics (May 22, 1930).

May 1: Cubs 3, Reds 2 -- Kimbrel's scoreless streak
Though it didn't come easy for the veteran closer, Craig Kimbrel turned in another scoreless outing and picked up his eighth save of the season. He gave up back-to-back hits in the ninth inning but struck out Alex Blandino and Tyler Naquin before getting Nick Castellanos to ground out to second to end the game. That extended Kimbrel's scoreless-innings streak to 18 1/3 dating back to Sept. 3 of last season.