Bernfield: Cubs' offense built to wear down opponents
If there was one inning that encapsulates the Cubs' winning formula so far this season, it was Wednesday night's opening frame against Alfredo Simon.
The Reds' starter labored through forty-nine pitches, and only recorded two outs.
Forty-nine pitches. Two outs. Three walks.
It resulted in five runs in that first inning, and the Cubs knocked Simon out of the game. It led to a 9-2 victory over Cincinnati.
This is the identity of the 2016 Chicago Cubs - wearing out opposing pitching staffs by taking a selective approach at the plate. It's the blueprint team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer brought from Boston to rebuild the Cubs. Five years after taking over, they have built the offensive machine to wear down their opponent. It's an approach that gives the Cubs a chance to win every day.
"It's something Theo and I talk about all the time," Hoyer told me on WSCR-AM's "Inside The Clubhouse" last week. "We watched a lot of great offenses in Boston, and we watched the impact it had on the other team. The impact it had on the starting pitchers, the anxiety it caused the relief pitchers."
The impact is fatigue. It causes the pitcher on the mound to tire, the bullpen to be overworked, and their collective performance to diminish. Wednesday, Simon was pulled after just two outs. It exhausted the Reds' bullpen. Cincinnati was forced to use its pen for the final 8 ⅓ innings.
"It's an exhausting approach for another team to play," Hoyer added. "If they have a four-game series with us, I think they know that the bullpen's going to be really taxed by the end of that series."
Entering this weekend's action, the Cubs had the highest walk rate and on-base percentage in major league baseball. In two of their first nine games, they walked 10 times. The Cubs won 8 of 9 games to start the year. It's no fluke.
The last time the Cubs led the National League in both walks and on-base percentage was 2008, a year in which the Cubs won 97 games and finished in first place. Last year, in the Cubs' 97-win campaign, they led the National League in walks, and finished fifth in on-base percentage.
After acquiring Jason Heyward (career .352 on-base percentage) and Ben Zobrist (career .355 on-base percentage), they're even more patient now.
"This is a very on-base, offensive approach driven team. And I think that's a great thing," Hoyer said. "When you have the top of the order the way it is now, with Fowler, Heyward and Zobrist, those are three really good on-base guys that battle at-bats. Then, you get to the middle of the order, and those guys have really good at-bats, but they're really dangerous power-wise."
"I really like our offense. I think we're going to score a ton of runs when it gets warm at Wrigley this summer. It should be a lot of fun for people to watch."
So far, it sure is. The Cubs are winning, and entering play this weekend, they've scored the most runs in baseball.
Just make sure to keep your energy up while you watch the Cubs exhaust their opposition.
• Jordan Bernfield is an anchor and co-host of "Inside The Clubhouse" on WSCR 670-AM The Score. He also works as a play-by-play broadcaster for ESPN. Follow him on Twitter@JordanBernfield.