Only five days remain in the 2026 MLB regular season and several postseason berths remain up for grabs, including multiple division titles. These last five days could also swing awards races. There is not much time remaining in the regular season but there is still much to be decided.
Here now are three trends to keep an eye on as the season winds down. If you like home runs, the 2026 Cubs are the team for you. Going into play on Tuesday, the Cubs led baseball with 217 homers, one more than the Yankees and 13 more than any other National League team.
The Cubs also ranked second with 228 homers allowed, three behind the Athletics, a team that has basically zero pitching and plays home games in a launching pad in Sacramento. Several teams have come close, particularly those late-1990s/early 2000s Rockies teams, but no team has ever led baseball in home runs hit and home runs allowed in the same season. The Cubs might do that this year.
It's both a good thing and a bad thing, obviously. Home runs win in October. You have to be able to hit the ball out of the park in the postseason.
At the same time, allowing a lot of home runs is a bad omen heading into October. Here are the numbers just to drive home the point. More runs are scored via home run in the postseason than in the regular season, every year, year after year: Runs per game goes down in the postseason, too.
Fewer runs are scored in the postseason overall, but a higher percentage of the runs that are scored come on homers. Chicago's offense is well-built for October, in that sense. The pitching staff, though?
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