CHICAGO -- One day after electrifying the Wrigley Field crowd with the first three-homer performance of his career, Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong was at it again on Sunday night. The center fielder put a charge into a pitch from Reds righty Chase Burns for yet another leadoff blast for the North Siders, and added a second homer off Emilio Pagán in the ninth.
They were dynamic moments for the National League MVP contender, but the home runs did little to generate much momentum in the end for the Cubs.
Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga’s struggles with allowing home runs continued against the Reds, who took two of three in Chicago by sending the North Siders to a 7-5 loss in the finale. The Cubs have lost seven of their last 10 ahead of a crucial four-game series against the division-leading Brewers at the Friendly Confines.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, keep doing what we’re doing,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And I think we’ll find ourselves in a nice position when the regular season is over.”
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s loss:
1. PCA’s leadoff blast
The Cubs’ lineup was mired in a prolonged slump back in May, when Cubs manager Craig Counsell shook things up and moved Crow-Armstrong into the leadoff spot.
“We needed a jump. We needed something to change,” Counsell said. “It wasn’t very analytical or anything like that. It was just, we needed a spark.”
Heading into Sunday, the Cubs led the Majors in runs scored (472) and weighted runs created plus (120) since Crow-Armstrong was installed as Chicago’s leadoff hitter on May 23. And on Sunday, the center fielder kept his game-opening heroics going with another leadoff blast against the Reds.
Crow-Armstrong launched a full-count fastball from Burns into the right-field bleachers for his 37th homer of the year and his ninth leadoff shot of '26. Only Alfonso Soriano (12 in 2007) has more leadoff homers in a single campaign in Cubs history. Six of Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff blasts have come in August -- one shy of the MLB record for one month.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Crow-Armstrong is also the fourth player in MLB history with a leadoff homer one game after a three-homer showing. Kyle Schwarber (Sept. 4, 2024), Brian Dozier (Sept. 6, 2016) and Mookie Betts (June 1, 2016) are also on that niche list.
Asked about the homers, Crow-Armstrong instead turned the focus on the Cubs as a team.
“That’s why I’m here. I’m here because I’m a part of something bigger than me,” he said. “You always get asked about stuff that happened physically on the field, or whatever it is you guys want to report, but I don’t have that much to say about hitting baseballs. It’s easier to talk about the bigger picture.”
2. Shota’s homer issues
An issue down the stretch a year ago was that Imanaga became homer prone to the point that the lefty slipped down the depth chart when it came to mapping out the rotation for the postseason. The Cubs would love to avoid a repeat scenario in September this season.
Imanaga’s style of pitching is always going to include fly balls turning into home runs, but his objective is always to minimize the damage and frequency of the blasts. In Sunday’s loss, the Reds connected for three homers off the Cubs starter, making this the sixth time this year Imanaga allowed at least that many shots in a game.
That sets a dubious single-season club record for Imanaga after Greg Maddux held the previous mark of five such games in the 2004 season for the North Siders.
“We know he’s going to give up some home runs,” Counsell said. “That’s just part of it. It’s the nature of his repertoire. You give up three in a start, you’re behind the eight ball. That’s too many. They got three out of the park. They took three good swings -- a couple with men on base. That puts us behind.”
Imanaga is currently tied for the most home runs allowed (33) in the Majors this season, and has given up eight in his past four outings. In that recent stretch, he has given up homers at a rate of one per 9.1 at-bats. For comparison, Imanaga had a 10-start run before that in which he had a 2.06 ERA and limited the damage to one homer per 26.8 at-bats.
“There is a little frustration within myself,” Imanaga said via interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “But I need to be the one to figure it out and need to make those adjustments and improve.”
3. Thielbar’s strong sixth
The Cubs made the decision on Saturday to designate lefty Hoby Milner for assignment after the veteran reliever’s Minor League rehab timeline had come to an end following an appendectomy. At the moment, Chicago felt that move made more sense than eliminating someone else from the current bullpen.
“The thing that’s unfortunate is the circumstances,” Counsell said. “But you have to replace somebody from the roster to get him on the roster. And I think, at this point, we just didn’t see a move to make, so that means we had to make the other move.”
One arm the Cubs are continuing to trust is 39-year-old Caleb Thielbar, who has turned in a perplexing season of sorts. While he has a 29.0% strikeout rate (51 punchouts in 41 2/3 innings), Thielber has allowed homers at a rate of 2.2 per nine innings with a 4.97 ERA. Against the Reds, the lefty struck out all three batters he faced in the sixth.
Counsell was asked if Thielbar has done enough to keep his spot and replied, simply: “Yes.”