Cubs Become 2nd-Fastest Team to Reach +100 Run Differential

With Saturday's 8-5 win over the Washington Nationals, the 2016 Chicago Cubs became the second-fastest major league team (since at least 1900) to reach a run differential of plus-100, per Sportsnet Stats.

The Cubs needed just 29 games to get to the century mark, trailing only a 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates club that got to plus-100 in its 26th game en route to finishing with a 103-36-3 record.

That Pirates team easily won the National League, but it didn't have an opportunity to play in the World Series, which was first contested the following year.

The Pirates lost to the Boston Red Sox (then called the Boston Americans) in the first World Series, falling by a tally of five games to three in a major upset.

In any case, the Cubs are positioning themselves for a run at their first World Series title since 1908, as they're the first National League team since the 1977 Dodgers to win 23 of its first 29 games, per MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter.

Making the 23-6 record even more impressive, the Cubs enter Sunday having won three consecutive games against the Washington Nationals, owners of the National League's second-best record at 19-11.

Prior to the ongoing series, the Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the division-rival Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that reached the playoffs in each of the last three seasons.