Chicago Cubs: No letup in series opener against Brewers

Chicago Cubs: Aggressive approaches paying dividends

Cubs hitters have seemed to figure out that they have a tremendous amount of success against opposing starters when they are aggressive early in the count. Chicago did the majority of their damage against Noah Syndergaard early on in their at-bats and Victor Caratini‘s first home run against Jacob deGrom came on a 1-0 count.

More from Cubbies Crib

• Cubs starting pitching has been thriving on the North Side
• Make no mistake: the Cubs are very much about power hitters
• Cubs are giving pitcher Javier Assad a deserved shot
• Cubs: It’s time to start thinking about potential September call-ups
• Cubs: P.J. Higgins deserves to be in the lineup on a daily basis

The same can be said for Friday. Ian Happ doubled on the first pitch Anderson threw. Two pitches later, Nicholas Castellanos made it 2-0 Cubs with a long home run. Caratini doubled just two pitches after that, making it clear that Cubs hitters were in attack mode.

Of course, there is a big difference between being aggressive and being reckless at the plate. But Cubs hitters seem to be picking their locations well and not getting too deep into counts where they can be exploited.

Castellanos and Schwarber (who also homered on Friday) in particular have had tremendous approaches in this regard, and they have been making hard contact and driving the ball to all fields in recent weeks.

There is no question the Cubs have the personnel to be one of the most dangerous offenses in baseball, but it starts by putting early pressure on opposing starters and focusing them to execute from the first pitch.