Friday notes: • THE .500 CLUB: By beating the Cubs last night, the Reds raised their record to 77-76, so tonight’s game will be the Cubs’ first in 26, nearly one-sixth of a season, against an opponent with a winning record. The last was a 4-1 loss to the Brewers at home on Aug. 21. In the 25 games since then against sub-.500 teams, the Cubs went 15-10, a .600 winning percentage. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53) • MAGIC NUMBER: The Cubs’ magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot over the Padres remains at 5 after the Cubs’ loss Thursday. Thus if the Cubs go 5-4 in their nine remaining games, they’ll host the wild-card series regardless of what the Padres do. If for any reason a tiebreaker is needed, it will work this way. The Cubs and Padres split their season series, so the tiebreaker betw

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