Wrigley Field spent Wednesday night chanting “M-V-Pete,” and by the end of it the argument was basically over. Pete Crow-Armstrong went 3-for-4 with two home runs, an RBI triple, three RBIs and three runs scored in Chicago’s 8-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.
The first one was his 43rd of the season, breaking Billy Williams’ Cubs record for left-handed hitters that had stood since 1970. The second, his 44th, came leading off the seventh inning. That made seven multi-homer games this season and 13 in his career.
He struck out on five pitches with the bases loaded in the eighth and still got a standing ovation on the walk back to the dugout. That is where this season has gone.
Craig Counsell has run out of words
Counsell is not a manager who oversells anything. He has been around baseball his entire adult life, and on Wednesday he sounded like a guy in the bleachers, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
“You’re shaking your head in amazement, sometimes,” Counsell said. “In amazement. You know, you don’t get to see this. That’s what I told Alex (Bregman): ‘We don’t get to see things like this.’ You spend your whole life in baseball and you just don’t see this happen on a baseball field.”
Counsell kept going, saying fans would tell their kids and their grandkids about this season. Shota Imanaga, who started and won the game, said through an interpreter that there is no word in English that covers what Crow-Armstrong is doing, so he would have to invent one.
The numbers are not close
Crow-Armstrong is hitting .283 with 44 home runs, 105 RBIs, 29 doubles and 37 stolen bases. He sits one homer behind Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the major league lead at 45, and he is closing in on the first 40-40 season in Cubs history.
Then there is the center field defense, which is Gold Glove work on a nightly basis at the most demanding position on the grass. He is 24 years old. Two years ago the scouting report said glove-first prospect with questions about the bat. Now he sits at or near the top of every offensive category in the National League.
Shohei Ohtani has been on the injured list with right biceps inflammation, which removes the one player capable of winning this award by acclamation. Schwarber has the homer lead and not much else in the argument.
Our verdict: give it to him
Crow-Armstrong should be the National League MVP and it should not be a long night at the ballot box. A 24-year-old center fielder posting 44 homers and 37 steals while playing elite defense is the exact package this award was invented to reward.
The one thing working against him is team context. The Cubs are 85-68, second in the NL Central and 10.5 games back, hanging half a game ahead of the Phillies for the top wild card. Voters sometimes punish a player whose team is merely good instead of great.
They should not do it here. Chicago is in the postseason picture because of him, and the Cubs have leaned on his bat and his glove through a stretch when very little else has been reliable. If he closes out September anywhere near this level, the case is airtight.
Ohtani’s health took most of the drama out of this race. Crow-Armstrong’s September removed whatever was left.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.