Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell couldn’t help but turn to third baseman Alex Bregman standing next to him in the dugout after they watched Pete Crow-Armstrong go deep for a second time Wednesday night.
“We don’t get to see things like this,” Counsell noted to Bregman.
The familiar “M-V-P!” chants that started among the 35,779 fans at Wrigley Field at the beginning of the seventh-inning at-bat followed Crow-Armstrong as he trotted around the bases, the exclamation mark on a two-homer, three-extra-base-hit night in the Cubs’ 8-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The win kept the Cubs (85-68) a half-game up on the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League’s first wild-card spot.
At this rate, Crow-Armstrong’s incredible power production might keep him from joining rare company.
Sitting three stolen bases away from what would be only the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history, Crow-Armstrong’s bat shined again Wednesday. Crow-Armstrong slugged his 43rd and 44th home runs of the season, drove in another on an RBI triple and recorded a walk.
Crow-Armstrong’s first long ball, a solo shot in the third off Braves starter JR Richie, moved him past Hall of Famer Billy Williams for the most home runs in a season by a left-handed hitter in franchise history. Crow-Armstrong then went deep off reliever Owen Murphy in the seventh. It represented his sixth game this year with at least 10 total bases, tying Nelson Cruz in 2019 for the most such games in a season in MLB history since 1900. His 81 RBIs out of the leadoff spot this season set a Cubs record dating to at least 1898, per team historian Ed Hartig.
“You’re shaking your head in amazement sometimes,” Counsell said. “You spend your whole life in baseball and you just don’t see this happen on a baseball field. So you’re grateful to be a part of it. You’re grateful to see things like this and then you’re grateful that the fans get to see a season like this because they’re going to talk about it. They’re going to tell their kids about it, they’re going to tell their grandkids about seasons like this.”
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Bregman also delivered a three-hit night and fell a single shy of the cycle, wryly calling himself stupid postgame for trying to hit a single in his final at-bat rather than continuing with his same approach.
“I don’t know how many chances I’ll have at a cycle because that triple’s hard when you’re this slow,” Bregman said with a grin. “Pete is on cycle watch when he wakes up in the morning.”
The combination of Crow-Armstrong and Bregman continues to fuel the offense as the latter has heated up in the second half. Seventeen of Bregman’s 26 home runs have come in his last 54 games while also hitting 17 doubles in that span.
“That’s kind of what it’s all about,” Crow-Armstrong said of the Cubs offense. “I mean, you’ve seen it happen multiple times this year, so it’s always fun to be a part of. Definitely makes your life a little easier when you know that someone can get the job done any second. We’ve seen it time and time again and when it is going like it is right now, it’s fun. It feels free and about as close to easy as baseball can get.”
As he walked to the on-deck circle in the bottom of the eighth, the NL MVP front-runner fist-bumped four kids in Cubs gear sitting in the front row. Braves lefty Brent Suter bested Crow-Armstrong in the bases-loaded spot, getting him to chase down and away on a slider to strike him out. Despite his visible frustration at not coming through in that spot, Cubs fans still gave Crow-Armstrong an ovation.
“He has high expectations of himself, and that’s always been the case,” Counsell said. “That’s not new and, yeah, he’s upset when he doesn’t do well. He needs to get his emotions out to turn the page. That’s how he’s always been, and we respect that. I think it’s important for him to get his emotions out and move on.”
Left-hander Shota Imanaga made sure Crow-Armstrong’s and Bregman’s stellar nights weren’t wasted. He delivered another great outing, holding the Braves to one run on four hits in six innings. He didn’t walk a batter or surrender a home run and struck out eight. In his last three outings, Imanaga has a 2.00 ERA with 16 strikeouts and two walks.
With nine games remaining until the postseason, the timing is ideal for one of Imanaga’s best stretches of the season.
“Those bad starts, they’re not something you need to be scared of,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I felt like because I have the support system and I have people that believe in me, I feel like I was able to pick myself up with the help of others and having that good mentality of I always have support.”