Chicago Cubs Magic Number Watch: 11 Games and Counting

The Cubs won yesterday in dramatic, walk-off fashion thanks to Jason Heyward’s fantastic day. That win got them one more game closer to the National League Division title. St. Louis managed to win yesterday, sparing them from being swept by the lowly Cincinnati Reds, and that allowed them to not give up any additional ground, for now, to the Cubs.

The Cubs magic number is now 11 games.

The Cubs win yesterday keeps them 16.5 games in front of the Cardinals with 26 games to play. The Pittsburgh Pirates are now 20 games behind the Cubs. In addition, the Cubs appear to be headed towards the 100 win mark. They have 88 wins right now with 26 games to play. So, all they need to do is win less than half of their remaining games to reach 100 wins for the season.

At the beginning of the season, in our opening day post (which you can read here), we predicted the Cubs would win 105 games. That too is well within reach for the Cubs. They currently have a .647 win percentage. They need to go 17-9 the rest of the way to get to 105 wins. That would represent a .654 winning percent for their remaining games. Well within reach.