CHICAGO -- After connecting with the baseball and watching its flight for a brief moment, Pete Crow-Armstrong turned and let his bat fall away from his hands. It was as if the piece of lumber was simply too hot for the Cubs star to handle. That sure seems to be the case right now.
One day after piecing together his first career three-homer performance -- at the request of former Cubs great Sammy Sosa, no less -- Crow-Armstrong opened Sunday night’s 7-5 loss to the Reds with another blast, and went deep again in the ninth. The M-V-P chants that have been gaining steam of late were full-throated once again at Wrigley Field.
“To lead off the game, he just has a great at-bat,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The ball just explodes off his bat and it’s a no-doubt home run. And then he does it again. He’s making it look a lot easier than it is. I think we’re witnessing something [special].”
Crow-Armstrong put a charge into a 98.9 mph fastball from Reds flamethrower Chase Burns, launching it out to right field with a 108 mph exit velocity, per Statcast. The home run was the ninth leadoff homer of the season for Crow-Armstrong, who trails only Alfonso Soriano (12 in 2007) for the most such shots in a season in Cubs history.
Crow-Armstrong also became the second Cub to hit five homers in a two-game span this season, after Dansby Swanson did it June 30-July 1. Prior to that, though, the last two times a Cub accomplished the feat were in 1979 (Dave Kingman) and 1968 (Billy Williams). Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the 1947 Pirates (Ralph Kiner, twice) are the only other team with two such stretches by a player in the same season.
With each historic footnote, Crow-Armstrong is strengthening his case to join the likes of Ernie Banks (1958-59), Andre Dawson (1987), Ryne Sandberg (1984), Sosa (1998) and Kris Bryant (2016) on the Cubs’ list of National League MVPs.
“Man, I played with Ryno in an MVP season,” said Cubs great Jody Davis, who was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame alongside Jon Lester on Sunday. “And you watch what [Crow-Armstrong’s] doing -- is there anything he can’t do?”
Six of Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff homers have come this month, making this one of the more prolific power displays out of the first spot of a lineup in baseball history. Kyle Schwarber (June of '21) and Soriano (September of '07) share the MLB record with seven leadoff homers in a single month, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
In the ninth inning, Crow-Armstrong added another blast -- this one a two-out solo shot off Reds closer Emilio Pagán. That gave him 14 homers in August -- tied for the fourth-most in a month in Cubs history. Only Sosa (who hit 20 in June of '98, then 17 in August of 2001, and 15 in August of '99) and Dawson (15 in August of '87) have hit more in one month.
Crow-Armstrong’s 14 homers in August are the most by an MLB player 24 years old or younger in a month since Ken Griffey Jr. went deep 15 times in May of '94.
It was not lost on Crow-Armstrong that these past two games have come with a long list of players in attendance for the team’s 150th anniversary celebration on Saturday, followed by Sunday’s team Hall of Fame ceremony for Davis and Lester.
“You’ve got 150 years worth of All-Stars and Hall of Famers and MVPs,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think this weekend is the perfect example, if you want to relate it to baseball being something bigger than any individual player.
"I don’t know if I was like, ‘Oh, I’m playing for all those that played before me.’ But there is a little bit of that, where you have so much history in the building. I think that’s really cool to feel that and let yourself feel that.”
Also according to Elias, Crow-Armstrong is also the fourth player in MLB history with a leadoff homer one game after a three-homer showing. Schwarber (Sept. 4, 2024), Brian Dozier (Sept. 6, 2016) and Mookie Betts (June 1, 2016) are also on that niche list. Earlier this month, Crow-Armstrong led off with a homer (Aug. 18) one game after hitting the first and last pitch of a win over the White Sox.
Crow-Armstrong now has 38 home runs this season, which puts him closer to a mark not seen on the North Side in a long time. Only once in Cubs history has a left-handed hitter reached 40 blasts in one campaign. That was Sweet Swingin’ Billy Wiliams, who had 42 homers in 1970. That is another part of the team record book that Crow-Armstrong has a chance to rewrite.
Crow-Armstrong’s 31 home runs since the start of June are seven more than any other Major Leaguer in that span.
At the moment, Crow-Armstrong also has 32 stolen bases to go with his home runs. He has a real shot at a 40-40 performance this season, which has only been done six times in MLB history (most recently by Shohei Ohtani in 2024). The Cubs center fielder is already the only player to go 30-30 in back-to-back seasons in franchise history, and joined Sosa (1993 and ‘95) as the only players in team annals to have two such tours.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a couple guys [who won an MVP],” Lester said. “But to see what he’s doing is pretty incredible.”