It’s easier being a Cubs starting pitcher these days.

With the team’s lineup scoring runs at a best-in-baseball rate, the team’s collection of arms can breathe a little easier than normal, even when going up against some of the best bats in the sport.

“It makes your life a little bit less stressful when you give up a run in the top of the first and then you score five in the bottom of the first,” Cubs right-hander Ben Brown told the Sun-Times on Friday. “What our offense is doing, it’s been incredible. It’s made it a lot easier for starting pitchers to get comfortable, and it gives us a little room for error.

“Our goal is to win ballgames, not to throw shutouts.”

Indeed, the Cubs’ starting staff has not been perfect. This week against the Dodgers, Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd gave up 11 runs, though only five were earned. Still, the Cubs won both games, the starting pitching doing a good enough job of keeping this high-octane offense within striking distance.

Perfect or not, the rotation has been quite good through the season’s first month, entering Friday with a 3.50 starters’ ERA, which ranked sixth in baseball.

Individually, Brown has improved since a rocky beginning to the season, with just one run allowed in his last two starts, lowering his ERA from 7.71 to 4.57.

“It’s like, ‘Hey, your job is go out there, fill up the zone and get outs and keep us in the ballgame,’” Brown said. “Having that mindset, it’s really what you should be doing even if your team’s not scoring. But really being able to embrace that right now, it’s making us better pitchers, the whole staff.

“We’re so team-oriented with how we’re competing. It’s like, ‘If we give our team a chance to win, we’re probably going to win. If we can hold them to four or less, five or less, we’re hitting the ball real well, so we’re giving our team a chance to win.”

And the Cubs have won, with a 16-10 record that has them atop the NL Central.

Even the best offenses can be streaky, though, ebbing and flowing throughout the course of a season. The Cubs will need their starting staff to remain effective should the bats cool down.

That challenge remains a big one with Justin Steele sidelined for the remainder of the season after undergoing elbow surgery.

“We’ll never be able to replace what Justin can do. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball, and the way he competes is like no other,” Brown said. “But what we can do is take a little bit of that with us.

“Justin’s an uber competitor. There’s no excuse for us to not go out there and pitch like we’ve got our backs against the wall. That’s what Justin does. Every time he goes out there, he’s going to put his best effort forward, and we’re going to try to do the same thing. We’re all going to come together and try to make up for those innings that we don’t have from Justin this year.”

Things are getting potentially more problematic, too. Javier Assad, who might have been counted on as a valuable reinforcement, left a recent rehab start with a reaggravation of the strained oblique that had him on the IL in the first place. Manager Craig Counsell said Friday there’s no timeline for Assad’s return.

Combine the unknown of Assad with the known of Steele, and the Cubs could use some help on the starting-pitching front, certainly something Jed Hoyer’s front office will be looking for come the trade deadline.

In the meantime, though, Brown and the rest of the rotation are happy to reap the rewards of their teammates’ hot bats and help shoulder the Steele-less load themselves. In the face of injuries, whatever can help make things easier on the starting staff is an important thing for these Cubs.

“It’s fun to be on a winning ball team in the big leagues,” Brown said. “It’s a blast.”