The Chicago Cubs have lost five games in a row and their grip on first place in the NL Central. The Milwaukee Brewers (29-18) seized the division lead with a three-game sweep, in which they outscored the Cubs 19-5.
Chicago (29-21) is 2-9 in its past 11 games after authoring a pair of 10-game win streaks — a single-season feat the club hadn’t accomplished since 1935 — and sprinting out to a head-turning 27-12 start.
Advertisement
The Cubs are in a funk, especially center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. The fiery 24-year-old was understandably despondent on Wednesday after Chicago’s latest setback, a 5-0 defeat to the Brewers in the teams’ series finale.
After all, Crow-Armstrong committed a ghastly error in the second inning that cost the Cubs three runs. With runners advancing from first and second, he whiffed while trying to field a single to center. The ball rolled under and then past Crow-Armstrong’s glove. He made a bee-line toward the ivy to track it down, but the damage was done. A zooming David Hamilton made it all the way around the bases for MLB’s latest Little League home run.
That was Crow-Armstrong’s second error in as many days.
On Tuesday, a relatively routine Sal Frelick fly ball bounced off his mitt in the fourth inning of a 5-2 loss. Fortunately for Crow-Armstrong, that gaffe didn’t end up biting the Cubs. Even though Milwaukee ended up with men on the corners after a Hamilton bunt single, Ben Brown navigated the jam, as the righty recorded back-to-back punchouts before inducing a frame-ending grounder.
Advertisement
Still, when compounded, Crow-Armstrong’s errors are particularly head-scratching.
“Yesterday and today are, like, genuinely laughable,” a reflective Crow-Armstrong told reporters postgame on Wednesday, as he began an answer that was infused with accountability and humility, via WGN TV News’ Josh Frydman.
“You know, I think one thing I can fall back on is that it’s never really a lack of focus. But trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production that I’ve given this team and this city and not acting how I should. I think anything physically usually starts mental, and I think that’s just what I’m showing everybody right now.”
Crow-Armstrong added: “I need to show up and keep pushing. But that can’t happen, that kind of stuff. That just can’t happen.”
Advertisement
Known as PCA, the 2020 first-round pick has developed into one of the more popular athletes in Chicago the past couple years. He brings timely power to the plate, and his speed makes him an exciting watch on the base path and in the outfield.
He also wears his emotions on his sleeve. Sometimes, though, that haunts him, as was the case during this past weekend’s crosstown series. Spats with fans at the White Sox’s Rate Field got him into trouble. He’s expressed regret for how he handled the heckling he received on Sunday.
And it’s clear he wants to live up to the six-year extension reportedly worth $115 million that he signed before the season.
Advertisement
“I’m not worried at all about him,” Cubs veteran third baseman Alex Bregman said Wednesday of Crow-Armstrong, according to ESPN.
“I know what he puts into the game. He’s a guy that you want on your team in big games. Regardless of what he says, he’s been a difference-maker this year.”
