CHICAGO—Chants of “PCA! PCA! PCA!” echoed throughout Wrigley Field after the final out of the top of the 10th.
Collectively, Cubs fans erupted in timely cheers to encourage their star center fielder to end the game with one swing in the upcoming bottom frame. After a night of jeering and jawing between Cubs and White Sox fans, the Crosstown Classic opener at Wrigley Field had come down to one final half-inning.
The Cubs were searching for timely hitting all night to put them over the edge; every time the Cubs appeared to gain control, the White Sox had an answer.
Until Pete Henry Crow-Armstrong.
The National League-leading MVP candidate delivered the final swing of the night in emphatic fashion.
“It’s been incredible to watch,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
Entering Monday’s game, Crow-Armstrong was 5-for-39 in his previous 39 at-bats. The Crosstown Classic stage wasn’t too bright for the superstar center fielder, who once again delivered for the Cubs when it mattered most.
Even though the breaking ball caught Crow-Armstrong out front, he was able to flick an outside 82-mph slider from White Sox left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith to right field for his first career walk-off home run. Giving the Cubs a 7-5 victory in 10 innings.
On the night, Crow-Armstrong had two home runs, a first-inning first-pitch homer and a 10th-inning walk-off, along with a double, single, walk, strikeout, stolen base and three runs batted in.
Crow-Armstrong is the only Cub to record consecutive 30-30 seasons and is the only player other than Sammy Sosa to record multiple 30-30 seasons in franchise history. Sosa recorded his two in 1993 and 1995.
“This might be his best game in the big leagues right here,” Counsell said. “It was an amazing game.”
Going into Monday’s contest, Crow-Armstrong’s 7.7 fWAR ranked first in the majors ahead of Shohei Ohtani’s 6.6 fWAR. His historic performance Monday night added 0.5 fWAR to his total, but the MVP race is far from over. Ohtani also homered twice Monday night.
PCA wasn’t the only one to defend his own turf.
Nico Hoerner collected four hits, two RBI and filled in seamlessly for injured Dansby Swanson at shortstop, who is out for the foreseeable future with a Grade 2 left oblique injury. Alex Bregman had three hits and a walk. Seiya Suzuki followed Crow-Armstrong’s first-inning homer with one of his own, blasting a 95.8 mph Luis Castillo fastball 440 feet to left-center field.
Aside from two costly pitches to White Sox cleanup hitters, the Cubs’ pitching staff was dominant.
Cubs southpaw starter Shota Imanaga worked six innings, allowing three runs on three hits while walking three and striking out 10. It marked his third double-digit strikeout game of the season, joining his 11-strikeout performance against Philadelphia on April 15 and Imanaga’s 10-punchout performance against Cincinnati on May 5.
The blemishes on Imanaga’s scorecard came on one pitch in the fourth inning. The left-hander’s 83.5 mph splitter caught too much of the zone to Randal Grichuck, who launched a three-run homer. However, the one splitter to Grichuck appeared to be an outlier; Imanaga’s splitter recorded 8-of-10 strikeouts.
The White Sox took a 5-4 lead in the 8th when Ryan Zeferjahn left a first-pitch 96.8 mph fastball up in the zone to pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi, who drove it out of the park.
Chicago’s bullpen, however, refused to let the game get away.
Ryan Rolison, David Peterson and Jacob Webb combined for three innings of scoreless relief.
Webb provided the most dramatic moment of the trio’s outing in the 10th. After thinking he had struck out Braden Montgomery to end the frame, Webb walked toward the Cubs’ bench screaming in celebration, only for the call to be overturned following Montgomery’s successful ABS challenge.
Webb had to regroup. Montgomery eventually reached with a walk, loading the bases. The trusty back-end reliever turned to his changeup yet again to escape the jam, inducing a soft groundout to Michael Busch to end the threat.
Webb hasn’t allowed a run in a career-high 22 consecutive appearances covering 22.2 innings since June 24.
The Cubs closer relies primarily on two pitches, hurling fastballs 45% of the time and his changeup 36.9%. Sliders, curveballs and sweepers account for the other 18.1%. Opponents are hitting a measly .207 batting average against Webb’s changeup, while posting a 43.1% whiff rate, ranking third among qualified pitchers behind Christopher Sanchez (46.9%) and Tarik Skubal (49.1%), per Baseball Savant.
Webb kept the game tied.
Then Crow-Armstrong finished it.
“I’m glad he’s on my team,” Webb said. “I’m going to say Pete’s my MVP. Definitely, I feel like he’s earned it. I think he’s that good of a player.”
As “PCA! PCA! PCA!” echoed throughout the Friendly Confines, Crow-Armstrong delivered the historic swing the Cubs had been waiting for, sending the Crosstown Classic into the Chicago night with his first career walk-off home run.
“It’s just super fun after something like that to appreciate all the little stuff that went right,” Crow-Armstrong said following the “PCA” chants. “That’s why I’m up in the bottom of the 10th inning. I love these games, because that’s not always going to happen.”
Crow-Armstrong seems to feed off the crowd’s energy, delivering yet again in the clutch for the Cubs faithful. The numbers back it up. The center fielder is slashing .309/.406/.604 with 17 home runs and 41 RBI at home and is slashing .256/.353/.500 with 13 home runs and 37 RBI on the road.
It was a head-scratcher to pitch to the NL MVP frontrunner with a base open in the 10th.
“PCA!” chants rained down the Wrigley Field concourse from the crowd as they streamed out of Wrigley Field after the victory.
“When you play a game like we did tonight,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That’s all the fun that I need in my life ever.”
The division and MVP races are both far from decided.
The Cubs sit 4.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers with seven games remaining against their division rival before the regular season concludes. With the division still within reach and Crow-Armstrong strengthening his MVP case with every performance, the final weeks of the regular season promise to be anything but quiet in Chicago.
Probable starters:
Tuesday: Kevin Gausman (6-11, 4.56 ERA) vs Bryan Hudson (3-4, 3.13 ERA)
Wednesday: Clay Holmes (5-5, 2.60 ERA) vs TBA
