PITTSBURGH — The M-V-P chants started among Chicago Cubs fans behind the visitors dugout as Pete Crow-Armstrong crossed the plate.
Crow-Armstrong had just lasered a two-run home run into the right-field seats during the seventh inning Saturday night to cap a four-hit night in the Cubs’ dominant 11-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Left-hander Shota Imanaga didn’t give the Pirates any chance to come back by throwing six shutout innings.
In front of the largest crowd at PNC Park since 2024, Crow-Armstrong put on a show. The cheers keep coming whether at Wrigley Field or on the road.
“Any time you can give people something to cheer about, chant about, just get behind us usually means you’re doing something right,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Hearing people cheer for you so loudly in an opposing stadium, it’s great.”
He finished with three extra-base hits — including his 23rd home run — three RBIs and twice bested Pirates ace Paul Skenes, highlighted by a go-ahead RBI double in the fifth inning. It was a masterful sequence between two of the best in the game.
Skenes had frozen Crow-Armstrong during his previous at-bat by catching the center fielder looking at a full-count fastball over the middle of the plate, the fifth straight heater Skenes threw. Crow-Armstrong was visibly frustrated taking strike 3 with runners on the corners. When they faced off again in the fifth, Crow-Armstrong adjusted to the heavy dose of changeups. He eventually turned on a well-executed changeup Skenes located down and away out of the zone that Crow-Armstrong stayed back on to pull to the center-field wall.
“I love facing Paul, he’s one of the best competitors in in our sport, so I admire that the most about him, and I love how he goes about his business,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And it’s fun to watch that behind the scenes when you get to be in the same clubhouse as him (in the World Baseball Classic).
“So I think taking that kind of personal experience into today with me and into any matchup with him, it’s fun. I know how hard he works. I know how much he loves being out there and being the face of the Pittsburgh Pirates. That’s always fun, especially going up against somebody you really like.”
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Crow-Armstrong’s greatness this season stems, in part, from not letting at-bats that don’t go his way to linger. The improvement in competitive at-bats and in-game adjustments have played an important role too. When Skenes got Crow-Armstrong with his fastball for the strikeout looking in the third inning, he was determined to be ready for the pitch in the next at-bat, which let him adjust to the changeup that he drove for the RBI double.
“Buying into the bigger picture and the identity of this team, I think’s really helped me personally,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s just how big you let your emotions get. I feel like for me that usually limits me from moving on like that. So not just going out and playing defense, trying to process it as best I can and go compete. Really simple fixes, just sometimes hard to do.”
As August approaches, Crow-Armstrong has firmly put himself in the National League MVP conversation.
Following Saturday’s performance, Crow-Armstrong became the first player in MLB to reach 7.0 fWAR this season while improving his slash line to .291/.390/.544 with a 156 wRC+. With Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s knee still not feeling well enough to resume pitching, there is a clearer path for Crow-Armstrong to make a case for NL MVP — if he can keep rolling offensively.
“He’s got a lot of confidence right now,” manager Craig Counsell said. “I think probably at points last year he’s on go and it didn’t matter where the pitch was, and that’s the difference. And that makes you the right kind of aggressive.”
The Cubs haven’t had an MVP since Kris Bryant won it in 2016. Crow-Armstrong is on pace to finish with a WAR above 10.0, something that has happened only 61 times by 26 players in MLB history. An NL player hasn’t accomplished that feat since Barry Bonds posted a 10.6 WAR in 2004, while three Cubs have reached the mark: Sammy Sosa (10.3 in 2001), Ernie Banks (10.2 in 1959) and Rogers Hornsby (10.6 in 1929).
It is no longer outside the realm of possibilities that by the end of September, Crow-Armstrong could claim one of the best individual seasons in Cubs history.