CHICAGO – Pete Crow-Armstrong is no stranger to hearing the Wrigley Field crowd send chants of his initials through the old ballpark. With the calendar now flipped to August, repetitive cries of “M-V-P” might be around the corner soon as well.
In the seventh inning Saturday night, Crow-Armstrong showed once again why he has put his name firmly in the mix as an MVP contender in the National League. The center fielder ripped a pitch from Yankees reliever Brent Headrick into the right-field corner, delivering a go-ahead triple that helped the Cubs pull off a 5-2 victory.
“Pete had a wonderful at-bat against a left-handed reliever that’s had a great year,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He hung in there and hit a pretty good pitch, too.”
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win:
1. Quality again from Peterson
The Cubs understood that lefty David Peterson would be a project of sorts when they acquired the lefty from the Mets. The North Siders have to be thrilled with how his ongoing turnaround has been going since he arrived in late June.
“Hopefully David’s confident and believes in what he’s doing right now,” Counsell said. “And I think he’s performing like he does.”
Against the Yankees, Peterson racked up eight strikeouts (tying his season high) and gave the Cubs 6 1/3 innings, marking the fourth time in six starts that he has lasted at least into the sixth since joining the ballclub. Peterson also generated nine outs via ground balls in his 97-pitch performance, allowing two runs (one earned).
Peterson exited the game in the seventh after allowing a one-out solo homer to Spencer Jones.
“I felt good,” Peterson said. “It was good to get into the seventh. I would’ve liked to get through that, but we were at where we were at in the game. That’s the goal for me, is to try to go as deep as possible and give the team a chance to win.”
So far, Peterson has had one rough outing for the Cubs, giving up 10 runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Cardinals on July 3. In his five other outings with Chicago, the veteran lefty has crafted a 1.84 ERA (six earned runs in 29 1/3 innings).
2. Hoerner defies the wind
This was one of those nights when Wrigley Field transformed into a pitcher’s park, given the strong wind blowing straight in from center field. At first pitch, it was announced that the wind was gusting at 21 mph.
Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner was an unlikely candidate to defy the elements with a .348 slugging percentage going into the game. In fact, when Hoerner homered in St. Louis on Monday earlier this week, it snapped an 80-game power outage that spanned 321 at-bats.
“On a day like today, you can kind of see Spencer Jones hitting one,” Counsell quipped. “That’s a big man.”
So, naturally, Hoerner sparked a three-run outburst in the seventh with his sixth home run of the season. The second baseman jumped on a 2-2 splitter from Yankees righty Fernando Cruz, sending a line drive over the left-field line, where it narrowly cleared the old brick wall in the corner to tie the game.
“With the wind blowing straight in,” Hoerner said, “I didn’t know if it would stay fair or what would happen with the ball in the air. I definitely hit it well enough for it normally to be a home run, but that’s not always the case here. I was fortunate it stayed fair and got out.”
3. Webb holds the line
As the Cubs’ bullpen has weathered a long list of injuries and roles shifting throughout the group, veteran righty Jacob Webb has remained a steady hand for the group. It has helped Webb earn enormous spots as the season has worn on.
“He’s kind of just handled whatever’s been put in front of him,” Counsell said recently. “For the last three months, it’s been the biggest out in the game. He’s handled those outs. I give Jacob a lot of credit.”
Heading into Saturday night, Webb had not allowed a run over his previous 15 appearances, piling up 16 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings along the way. Against the Yankees, Counsell tasked the righty with the middle of New York’s order after the Cubs grabbed the lead. Webb escaped unscathed, ending the frame by inducing a groundout off the bat of slugger Ben Rice.
“He handled some big hitters,” Counsell said. “I was pretty sure, at some point, Rice was going to [pinch-hit] that inning. And he went through the heart of it and did a heck of a job, as he’s done all season.”