CHICAGO — The Cubs’ high-powered offense has been a talking point to start the 2025 MLB season.

That’ll happen when you’ve scored the second-most runs in baseball.

But this team isn’t just blowing out teams to win ballgames. No, as they just showed in the four-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field, they take more pride in finding small edges to beat opponents.

[MORE: Cubs takeaways: What we learned in walk-off win vs. Pirates]

Sometimes that results in extra outs that turn into elongated innings and more and more runs. On a day like Sunday, it meant scraping together key runs to win the game.

“I think it hopefully highlights some of the things you try to emphasize everything matters,” manager Craig Counsell said after the Cubs’ 3-2 extra innings win over the Pirates. “Grabbing an advantage wherever you can (could) be the difference.”

Those moments can happen at any time, as the Cubs saw Sunday. They can occur in the first inning, like when Ian Happ swiped second base, then advanced to third on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s groundout to second. Happ scored one batter later, giving the Cubs a run and an extra out. If he doesn’t swipe second, Crow-Armstrong’s ground ball likely is a double play, or Seiya Suzuki’s groundout the next at-bat is the inning-ending double play.

Instead, it gave the Cubs an extra plate appearance, and they cashed in. Michael Busch doubled and then Dansby Swanson singled, turning a two-run deficit turned into a tie game.

“It happens at every point in the game,” Counsell said. “I think that’s a really important thing.”

The Cubs needed just one run in the 10th inning after Chris Flexen held the Pirates scoreless in the top of the frame.

That seems easier said than done with the courtesy runner to begin extra innings, but it’s not a given either. Vidal Bruján pinch ran for Justin Turner as the courtesy runner, and the Pirates walked pinch-hitter Kyle Tucker. Their defense played in for a bunt from Jon Berti.

The veteran instead swung and fouled the first pitch. Bruján, a savvy baserunner, was able to use that to time his jump on the next pitch, and he swiped third base on a double steal. That eliminated the double play for Pittsburgh and meant a fly ball could win it for Chicago.

Berti struck out, but Happ hit an 0-2 David Bednar splitter that hung up in the zone for a single to right field to walk it off.

The Cubs faced stout pitching staff this series — Pittsburgh is 15 games under .500, but its rotation is no joke. The Cubs faced three good arms in Andrew Heaney, Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller. Even Mike Burrows, Saturday’s starter, pitched 5.1 innings of one-run ball. Couple that with some less-than-favorable weather, and the Cubs knew these four games would be tight, despite what the standings suggested.

All four games were decided by one run, and no team scored more than three in a game.

“Going in, (we) kind of expected a series like this, expected low scoring, and that means you have to make plays, whether it be on defense,” Counsell said. “You have to make pitches, you have to throw strikes, run the bases well. Those things get highlighted and emphasized in series like this, (with) conditions like this.”

The Cubs did that. It has been their identity this year and makes them believe they can continue to stack wins throughout the season.

“It just gives you the confidence that you’re never out of the game,” Happ said. “I think we felt that throughout the year. Whether we’re down early and we’re in a spot where we score some runs and come back, or whether it’s a tight game all the way through and we feel like we have a chance to win at some point.

“And I think it just keeps reinstalling that confidence.”