It started with a weirdly warm April in Anaheim. Honestly, looking back at the chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016, nobody really knew that a cross-country flight to face the Angels would be the first domino in a 103-win season. We just wanted to see if the hype was real.
The schedule was a gauntlet. 162 games.
It wasn't just about the wins; it was about the rhythm of that specific year. You had April 4th—Opening Night—where Jake Arrieta just absolutely dismantled the Angels' lineup. It set a tone. If you were following the team day-to-day, the schedule felt less like a list of dates and more like a slow-motion car crash for every other team in the NL Central. By the time they hit a homestand in late April against the Reds, including that legendary no-hitter from Arrieta in Cincinnati just days prior, the city of Chicago was basically vibrating.
The Early Grind: April and May Dominance
The chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016 was front-loaded with divisional matchups that allowed Joe Maddon’s squad to bury the competition early. They went 17-5 in April. Think about that for a second. Most teams are still trying to figure out their middle relief roles in April, but the Cubs were already operating like a buzzsaw.
They had this stretch in May where they played the Nationals and the Pirates back-to-back. It was supposed to be a "test." Instead, they swept Washington at Wrigley Field. Those four games in early May were arguably the most fun a fan could have in the regular season. Ben Zobrist was hitting everything. Anthony Rizzo was anchoring the defense. You’d wake up, check the schedule, and just assume a "W" flag was going up.
It wasn't all sunshine, though. Every schedule has its traps.
In late May and early June, the bats went a little cold. They had a rough patch against the Cardinals and the Rangers. People started panicking—because that’s what Cubs fans do. We’ve been conditioned for a century to wait for the other shoe to drop. The schedule showed a long West Coast road trip in late August that looked daunting. But they survived the dog days.
The Mid-Summer Lull and the All-Star Break
By the time the July schedule rolled around, the Cubs sent their entire starting infield to the All-Star Game. Literally. Rizzo, Zobrist, Russell, and Bryant. It was absurd.
The chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016 had a weird quirk in July where they played a bunch of interleague games. Remember the "Crosstown Classic" against the White Sox? They split that series. It was one of the few times that year where the team looked mortal. They lost both games at U.S. Cellular Field before coming back to Wrigley to salvage the week.
If you look at the game logs from July 2016, you see a team that was tired. They went into the break after a rough series against the Mets—the team that had swept them in the NLCS the year before. There was this lingering doubt. Was the schedule too grueling? Were they peaking too early?
The August Surge That Sealed the Division
August is where the 2016 Cubs became "The 2016 Cubs."
The schedule pitted them against the Marlins, Athletics, and Brewers. They went on an 11-game winning streak. It was ridiculous. You'd turn on the TV and someone different would be the hero every night. Javier Baez would make a tag that defied the laws of physics. Kris Bryant would hit a ball into the basket.
One specific game stands out: August 1st against the Mariners. The "Matusz Game." Look it up. Brian Matusz started, gave up three home runs, and the Cubs were down 6-0. They clawed back. Travis Wood, a pitcher, ended up playing left field and making a catch against the wall. Jon Lester came in to pinch-hit and laid down a perfect walk-off squeeze bunt in the 12th inning. That game wasn't just a win; it was a psychological break for the rest of the league. When the schedule says you're supposed to lose, and you find a way to win with a relief pitcher bunting in the winning run at 1:00 AM, you're a team of destiny.
The Final Month: Resting for October
By September, the chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016 was basically a victory lap. They clinched the division on September 15th, despite losing to the Brewers that night, because the Cardinals lost elsewhere.
Joe Maddon started tinkering. He used the final two weeks of the schedule to rest starters and get the bullpen ready. We saw a lot of Munenori Kawasaki and Chris Coghlan. The intensity dropped, which was actually nerve-wracking for fans. We wanted them to keep the momentum. But the goal wasn't 105 wins; it was eleven wins in October.
How the Regular Season Schedule Prepared Them for the World Series
The 162-game grind is a filter. It filters out the lucky from the actually good.
The Cubs finished with 103 wins. They led the league in run differential. But the schedule also forced them to deal with adversity. They had to deal with Kyle Schwarber’s devastating knee injury in the third game of the season. The schedule forced them to play without their powerhouse outfielder for six months.
When you look back at the chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016, you see the blueprint for the World Series. The tough road trips in San Francisco prepared them for the NLDS. The high-pressure games against the Dodgers in the regular season made the NLCS feel manageable.
- April/May: Establishing the 25-6 start.
- June/July: Managing injuries and the "World Series hangover" that started early.
- August: The 22-6 month that buried the Cardinals.
- September: Strategic rest and rotation management.
People often forget the grind of the travel. The 2016 Cubs had a particularly brutal stretch in late August where they went from Denver to San Diego to Los Angeles. That’s a lot of miles. Yet, they came out of that trip with a winning record. That’s where the championship was won—not just in Game 7, but in the hotel lobbies and on the charter flights during the dog days of summer.
Tracking the Key Series of 2016
If you're looking for the games that defined the year, you have to look at the series against the Giants in early September. The Cubs took three out of four at Wrigley. It was a playoff atmosphere. Every game was decided by a run or two. It taught the young guys like Addison Russell and Willson Contreras how to breathe when the air gets thin.
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Then there was the final road trip to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. It was low-stakes for the standings, but high-stakes for the psyche. They needed to finish strong. They did.
The chicago cubs baseball schedule 2016 concluded on October 2nd with a game against the Reds. They lost 7-4. Nobody cared. The real schedule was about to begin. The "second season."
Actionable Insights for Reliving the 2016 Season
If you want to truly understand how that season unfolded, don't just look at the highlights. Dive into the box scores of the random Tuesday games in June.
- Watch the "Matusz Game" (Aug 1, 2016): It encapsulates the weird magic of that roster.
- Analyze the Arrieta No-Hitter (April 21, 2016): This was the peak of his dominance and showed why the Cubs were feared.
- Compare Home/Away Splits: The Cubs were 57-24 at Wrigley. The schedule favored them because they turned their home park into a fortress.
- Check the Pitching Rotations: See how Maddon skipped starts in September to keep Hendricks and Lester fresh.
The 2016 season wasn't a fluke. It was a 180-day masterpiece of planning, endurance, and occasional insanity. The schedule was the map, and the Cubs followed it straight to a trophy that had been missing for 108 years.
To truly grasp the magnitude of the 2016 run, fans should utilize the MLB Film Room to search for specific dates from the August win streak. Reviewing the defensive shifts used during the mid-season series against the Dodgers offers a masterclass in how front-office analytics translated to on-field wins. Finally, checking the weather delays from that season—of which there were several critical ones—highlights how the team maintained focus despite the constant disruptions of Chicago spring weather.