How Did The Cubs Do Statistically In 1969 When The Mets Passed Them To Clinch The NL East Title?

At the close of play on Aug. 13 1969, the Mets were 10 games behind the Cubs in the NL East. The Mets clinched the division on Sept 24, being 6 game ahead of the Cubs with both teams having played 157 games. The Mets went 34-10 while the Cubs went 16-24 in that stretch.

In my last post I showed how the Mets did in their 34-10 stretch. Their hitters were no better or worse than they had been previously. But the pitching (and maybe defense) were much better.

But the Cubs did much worse in both hitting and pitching in their 16-24 stretch. Here is how the Cubs did in their first 118 games and then the next 40.

Stat	First 118	16-24
Runs	556	164
OPS	0.733	0.636
AVG	0.264	0.225
OBP	0.336	0.290
SLG	0.398	0.346
GDP	80	33

 
Runs per game fell from 4.71 to 4.1. Even though their OBP fell 46 points, their GDPs per game rose from .678 per game to .825 per game.

Now for the pitching. The picture is pretty ugly.

Stat	First 118	16-24	% Change
ERA	3.10	4.19	35.16%
Hits	8.110	9.275	14.36%
HRs	0.686	0.900	31.11%
BBs	2.763	3.475	25.78%
Non-HRs	7.424	8.375	12.81%
GDP	0.712	0.775	8.87%
HBP	0.144	0.300	108.24%
ROE	0.508	0.625	22.92%
SO	6.483	5.575	-14.01%

They gave up, including ROEs, about 1.8 more base runners per game, exclusive of HRs, which went up .214 per game. Strikeouts were down about .9 per game. Their ERA went up a little more than a run while it went down 1.32 for the Mets.

Up through Aug. 13, the Cubs were 74-43. They had outscored their opponents 556-407.  In the 40 game stretch, they were outscored 188-164.