With Three Useful Lefties in Their Bullpen, Cubs Will Continue Using Openers Often

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Rather than simply having Ben Brown start Saturday, the Cubs used Drew Pomeranz in the first inning, and had Brown come in to begin squaring off with the Reds in the second. With no starter officially announced for Colin Rea's rotation spot Thursday, expect to see an opener again. It could be Pomeranz once more, or (since he didn't see the top of the Nationals order in his appearance Tuesday night) Caleb Thielbar could take a turn.

The opener has multiple benefits. The more oft-discussed one, lately, is that the starter who comes in after the opener effectively begins their day with the middle of the opposing order, rather than the top of it. Therefore, they end up seeing the middle and lower thirds of that order as their, say, 19th through 25th batters faced in the game. As we've already documented here, Craig Counsell has been assiduous in his commitment to getting length even from starters who are having a tough game, but that's much easier (and less potentially damaging) if said starter doesn't have to face the top three hitters in an opponent's lineup in the process.

Brown, for instance, faced 20 batters in his (non-)start Saturday. Elly De La Cruz was the ninth and the 18th of those. Given the flow of the game, it made sense to lift Brown after six strong innings, but he could have worked seven that day without getting back to the top of the Reds order (with TJ Friedl, Santiago Espinal and De La Cruz) for a third time. Because the times-through-the-order penalty helps drive offense in the late and middle phases of a game, it's highly valuable to avoid having a backend starter face the best hitters in an opposing lineup a third time.

The other, less heralded advantage the opener confers, though, is a matchup-based one. In fact, only when you can exploit platoon matchups with the strategy does it fully offset whatever inconveniences it inflicts. That's why using Pomeranz against the Reds made sense. Friedl bats left-handed, and De La Cruz is a much better hitter from the left side than he is when he turns around to bat right-handed against southpaws. Among the top hitters in the Reds' lineup, only Espinal is a danger to lefty pitchers, and that's relatively speaking; he's the worst hitter in that group anyway.

The Nationals are, if anything, a more extreme proposition. With CJ Abrams, James Wood and Nathaniel Lowe as the typical top of their order and their three best hitters, they're profoundly vulnerable to a switcheroo that takes a righty out of their line of fire and forces them to face a lefty. Like Brown, Colin Rea runs into trouble against left-handed batters, especially later in games, so not having him face those three a third time and guaranteeing one matchup between those three and one of the Cubs' trio of lefty relievers is a no-brainer.

Washington could shake up their lineup in reply, of course. They do typically use some platoons and move people around the batting order when a lefty starts. If they do so, however, Counsell will have other options later in the game. Rea worked behind an opener five total times in his last two seasons with the Brewers, with great results (24 2/3 innings, 6 earned runs) in those appearances. He's a good fit for the strategy, and so is the arsenal-limited Brown.

Having three lefties in the pen whom Counsell can trust with at least medium-leverage work is a tremendous luxury, especially given what Rea and Brown can (and can't) do on the mound. Tuesday was the first of 26 games in 27 days for the Cubs, with some tough opponents on the schedule during that stretch. They'll hope to get Shota Imanaga back during the second half of that window, but for now, they have some juggling to do. For the first time all year, the sheer number of games and the dearth of off days will put some pressure on this pitching staff. The depth they've worked hard to assemble and the creativity of the man tasked with deploying them well will need to shine through.

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