CHICAGO -- As Dexter Fowler walked out of the Chicago Cubs clubhouse Sunday, someone loudly reminded him that he won the game in his first at-bat against Jake Peavy.
Fowler agreed, with a smile and a laugh.
Fowler, the leadoff hitter, didn’t reach base in that at-bat, striking out on an 85 mph cutter, but he saw 12 pitches from Peavy, fouling off seven.
The next hitter, Kyle Schwarber, saw eight pitches, fouling off three, and worked a walk. After striking out Chris Coghlan in five pitches, Peavy gave up back-to-back singles to Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, the latter scoring Schwarber.
By the time the inning was over, Peavy had thrown 38 pitches. He gutted out five innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks. Not bad numbers, but he threw 101 pitches to do it. The Giants bullpen was perfect, but the Cubs won 2-0, increasing their wild card lead over San Francisco to 3 1/2 games.
That’s why Fowler was a happy man walking out of the clubhouse, he did his job and set the tone.
“He’s been getting on base a lot,” Rizzo said before Sunday’s game. “That’s huge for our lineup because everyone is a threat, pretty much, in our lineup. So we need him on base to set the table.”
And even when he doesn’t get on base -- his on-base percentage is .414 since the All-Star break but only .339 during the Cubs’ recent hot streak -- he’s making the starter work early.
The Cubs are seeing 3.98 pitches per plate appearance, according to Baseball Reference, the most in the National League. The league average is 3.78.
Last year, the Cubs also led the NL, seeing 3.88 pitches per plate appearance, and the year before they were third at 3.85. The league average both seasons was 3.80.
While the Cubs stress a patient approach -- looking for balls to drive, not working walks -- it’s also the product of having more talent on the roster. Good hitters generally look for their pitches, which is typically what makes them good hitters. There is no magic formula working here.
In 2008, when the Cubs won their second division title in a row and had the best record in the league, they were third in this category, seeing 3.88 pitches. The year before, they saw 3.73 pitches, slightly below the league average of 3.75.
The addition of Schwarber to the everyday lineup after the All-Star break is certainly paying dividends.
In his first 29 games, Schwarber, with his .997 OPS, has 110 plate appearances and is seeing 4.27 pitches per plate appearance, which is tops on the Cubs, albeit in a small sample size. If he had a qualifying number of appearances, he would be fourth in the National League in this statistic.
Addison Russell, the other leadoff hitter batting ninth, is fifth in the NL at 4.17, while Bryant is seventh at 4.15. Fowler is 10th at 4.13. Chris Coghlan is 24th at 3.93 and Anthony Rizzo is 26th at 3.91.
The Cubs aren’t a monster offensive team quite yet, but this approach, and Joe Maddon’s lineup construction, makes this team very dangerous going into the playoff stretch.
After a day off Monday, the Cubs won for the 11th time in 12 games Tuesday, 6-3, knocking out Brewers starter Taylor Jungmann in the third inning.
Jungmann lasted 2 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs, two earned, but most importantly he racked up 81 pitches, which is quite a lot for less than three innings worth of work.
"We worked good at-bats," Maddon told reporters. "I love the tenacity of the at-bat. It continues to get better."
It was the shortest outing from an opposing starter during this stretch, but indicative of other results.
In the last 12 games, opposing starting pitchers have thrown an average of 92.9 pitches in 4.8 innings. Six times starters didn’t get out of the fifth and only once did a pitcher reach the seventh. Over the last eight games, no opposing starter has pitched six innings.
While everyone knows pitcher wins aren’t the measure of the man, the Cubs offense has kept opposing starters to 0-10 over the last 12 games. I think that’s pretty good.
