There is a correlation between hits and runs scored; the more, the better.
In 2013, the Cubs had 1307 hits and scored 602 runs. In essence, it took the Cubs 2.17 hits to score a run.
In contrast, the champion Red Sox had 1566 hits and scored 853 runs. Boston took 1.84 hits to score a run, at least an 18 percent improvement than the Cubs.
Taking the AL DH out of the discussion, the Cardinals had 1494 hits to score783 runs. St. Louis took 1.91 hits to score a run, at least 14 percent better than the Cubs.
Another way of looking at it is that the Cubs needed another .30 hit to score a run versus a quality competitor like the Red Sox or Cardinals.
Dividing hits by wins, the Red Sox has 16.15 hits/win. The Cardinals 15.40 hits/win. The Cubs had 19.80 hits/win. The range of hits/win is 5.40 to 3.75.
A basic element of the game, such as getting a base hit, in all of the sabermetrics, is still a simple key statistic to show run efficiency and correlation to victories.
