Pete Crow-Armstrong got off to a rough start at the plate this season after he put together a breakout campaign in 2025. Entering Saturday’s game against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, he had a .224/.314/.362 slash line with six home runs in ’26.
But as the month of May nears an end, PCA might be heating up. The 24-year-old center fielder, who launched 31 homers and stole 35 bases and won his first career Gold Glove Award last season, had a huge night at the plate on Saturday, going 4-for-5 with a double, a homer and two RBIs in the Cubs’ 6-1 win.
That performance, in which he finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, upped PCA’s slash line to .237/.327/.391. The contest began in an inauspicious manner for Crow-Armstrong, who struck out swinging to open the game. But he wouldn’t make an out the rest of the night. In fact, he would scorch every ball he put in play the rest of the way.
In the third, Crow-Armstrong lined a single with an exit velocity of 101.7 mph to right field off Cardinals starter Kyle Leahy. In the fifth, he smashed a screaming liner that came off the bat at 110.3 mph and hit off the base of the wall in right for a double.
“Really making a point and emphasizing getting one pitch to drive and driving it,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It's helped me find more barrels recently, for sure.”
In the eighth, as Cardinals fans chanted “overrated” from the stands, PCA responded by crushing a homer that traveled a Statcast-projected 444 feet into the “tarps off” section in right off reliever Gordon Graceffo. That homer had an exit velocity of 114.6 mph.
“They got like hundreds of shirtless guys out in right field,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Interesting theme for the year, but they're rowdy and they're showing up, like they're buying into something, so I can appreciate it.
“We love playing against the Cardinals too, like in division rivals, always fun. And it's nice that they got a really good squad this year, and they're playing good.”
The homer was the hardest ball Crow-Armstrong’s hit in his career and it was the longest at Busch Stadium this season.
PCA capped off his big night at the plate with a ninth-inning single to drive in Chicago’s sixth run.
But he wasn’t done just yet.
Fittingly, given his contributions on offense, Crow-Armstrong made a tremendous sliding catch to rob Jordan Walker of extra bases and end the game. According to Statcast, his sprint speed on the play was an elite 30.2 feet per second.
“I'm playing Jordan Walker a little deeper than most probably, he's just so strong and spins the ball so well,” Crow-Armstrong said. “So just erring on the side of keeping that ball in front of me, and you know, as I go, just seeing if I can make a play on it.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Crow-Armstrong’s catch was fun to watch.
“That ball goes up and you're like no, and then you’re like, yeah, maybe, and then he makes the catch, and it's pretty awesome,” Counsell said. “I mean, he's in a place where you just, you know, nobody's getting to that stuff.”
Although he was showing some subtle signs of breaking out of his offensive funk in recent days, Crow-Armstrong truly broke out in a major way on Saturday, and the Cubs hope it’s a sign of things to come.
Joe Harris contributed to this story.