{"id":807035,"date":"2026-09-17T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/807035\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T05:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:00:29","slug":"pete-crow-armstrong-furthers-mvp-case-in-cubs-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/807035\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Crow-Armstrong furthers MVP case in Cubs’ victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO — As Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> came up with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, the Wrigley Field crowd chanted “M-V-P! M-V-P!” — and not for the first time Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The fans serenaded the Chicago star after his first home run, his 43rd of the season to break Billy Williams’ Cubs<\/a> record for left-handed hitters. They made their feelings known again after his RBI triple and then after his 44th home run — his seventh multiple home run game of the season.<\/p>\n

Even when Crow-Armstrong struck out on five pitches in the eighth inning, he still received a standing ovation on his way back to the dugout. He finished the night 3 for 4 with three RBIs and three runs in an 8-4 victory<\/a> over the Atlanta Braves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Shohei Ohtani<\/a> still on the injured list with right biceps inflammation, Crow-Armstrong keeps hitting home runs, closing in on the first 40-40 season in Cubs history and putting the finishing touches on his MVP case, at least as far as Cubs fans are concerned.<\/p>\n

“You’re shaking your head in amazement, sometimes,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “In amazement. You know, you don’t get to see this. That’s what I told Alex [Bregman<\/a>]: ‘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.<\/p>\n

“You’re grateful to be a part of it. You’re grateful to see things like this. And then you’re grateful the fans get to see a season like this. They’re going to talk about it. They’re going to tell their kids about it. They’re going to tell their grandkids about a season like this.”<\/p>\n

Yet, as he’s gone from breakthrough player to MVP candidate to MVP favorite, Crow-Armstrong has been unfazed by the pressure, his performance unwavering as the Cubs chase an NL wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

“I keep it pretty simple,” he said. “I enjoy just kind of laying low, as I always do and always will. I’ve got a really nice support system.”<\/p>\n

Only one home run behind Philadelphia<\/a>‘s Kyle Schwarber<\/a> for the major league lead, Crow-Armstrong is hitting. 283 with 105 RBIs, 29 doubles and 37 stolen bases to go with Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field.<\/p>\n

The 44 home runsare tied him with Ernie Banks (1955) for the most in a season by a Cubs player age 24 or younger. With11 total bases Wednesday night, he now has six games this season with 10-plus, tied for the most by any player since 1900 (Nelson Cruz also had six in 2019).<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong’s breakthrough season at age 24 has him at or near the top of every offensive metric in the NL while also tapping out the vocabulary of Wednesday’s winning starter, Shota Imanaga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We can always say he’s great, or he’s excellent, but really there’s no words to describe him,” Imanaga said through an interpreter. “So I’ll think of a new word in English for that.”<\/p>\n

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO — As Pete Crow-Armstrong came up with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, the Wrigley Field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[98319,5,138,24,4245,22965,161,649,4,169],"class_list":["post-807035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-98319","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-crow-armstrong-pete","tag-cubs","tag-espn","tag-mlb","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117284623076085097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}