The Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field winning streak has crossed into territory unseen since the Great Depression. Thursday night's 8-3 four-game sweep of Cincinnati made it fifteen consecutive wins at the corner of Clark and Addison, the longest such run since 1935 — ninety-one years ago.
For scale: the franchise record is twenty-one straight, set in 1880 at Lakefront Park. That target now sits visible on the horizon, six wins away.
The man on the mound for the streak's latest installment was Shota Imanaga. The Japanese left-hander spun six innings of one-run baseball with ten strikeouts, attacking the Reds with the calm, sequencing-driven craft that has made him one of the league's most quietly dominant arms.
"At Wrigley, there's a power that you can't see — but you can feel," Imanaga said through his interpreter after the game. "Once you're on the mound and watch the crowd, that gives you confidence."
Michael Conforto, currently part of a careful platoon rotation, delivered three hits including a solo home run, and added a walk for a perfect 4-for-4 day at the plate. The veteran outfielder has been a revelation in limited duty since arriving in Chicago in the offseason.
"It's great. It's like a dream," Conforto said. "I'm just trying to stay ready for my opportunities. It just feels like such a different atmosphere here than anywhere else I played."
Manager Craig Counsell, asked about Conforto's emergence, was quick to credit the player and the routine.
"The at-bats he's provided in limited playing time is really impressive," Counsell said. The manager preferred to keep the streak in perspective even as the historical pedigree built. "Our job is just to stack up wins. They count the same now as they do later."
The sweep capped a four-game series that included three straight walk-off wins — Pete Crow-Armstrong delivering each time. Crow-Armstrong rested Thursday after his 11th-inning heroics on Wednesday, but the lineup did not miss him. Ian Happ led off with a hit and made his presence felt in the field.
"Four-game sweep in the big leagues is really hard," Happ said. "Our ability to do it in many different ways has been most impressive."
The Cubs have won the four-game set in four different shapes. Tuesday came on bullpen muscle. Wednesday was vintage Cubs grind. Wednesday's nightcap was PCA-driven late-inning theatre. Thursday was Imanaga and lineup depth. The variety has been the most repeated theme in Cubs commentary all spring.
At 25-12 and tied for first in MLB's power rankings conversation, Chicago is no longer a hopeful contender. The team is a team to beat. With a homestand against St. Louis and the Mets next, Wrigley's windows of vulnerability look small.
The 1935 club won twenty-one straight games at Wrigley before the streak was finally broken. Imanaga, Counsell and Conforto are now a Hot Stove conversation away from being mentioned in the same breath.