The Cubs celebrated 150 years since becoming a National League franchise before Sunday’s game, with many of the team’s icons present.
Then the current Cubs put on an offensive show, with its newest potential franchise player, Pete Crow-Armstrong, solidifying his claim on this year’s National League MVP award. PCA hit three home runs, also singled, and had a chance at a fourth homer in the eighth inning. He got a standing ovation after grounding out against a Reds position player in that at-bat, and how often
do you see that?
Alex Bregman, Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki also homered for the Cubs and all of that helped the team to a 17-5 blowout of the Reds.
The fun started in the first inning, after Kevin Gausman set the Reds down in order in the top of the frame.
PCA hit the second pitch of the bottom of the first for his 34th home run [VIDEO].
Leadoff homer facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
PCA’s homer was the eighth of his career in the first inning with nobody on and nobody out, tying him with Brian McRae for the fifth most by a Cub.
Alfonso Soriano hit 22; Rick Monday, 17; Dexter Fowler, 12; and Ian Happ, 11.
All of PCA’s have come this season, five of them since Aug. 5.
Soriano hit 12 in 2007; Monday, eight in 1976; and Fowler, seven in 2016.
The most remarkable thing abouit that — five leadoff home runs in the team’s last 22 games!
Also, that ball was demolished [VIDEO].
And the Cubs weren’t done in that inning. Suzuki followed with a single and then Bregman went deep, his 20th [VIDEO].
Gausman, though, was also susceptible to the long ball on an afternoon with the wind blowing out at 13 miles per hour. A double by Tyler Stephenson was followed by … sigh… yet another home run by Eugenio Suárez against the Cubs, the 39th career blast for him against the North Siders, making it 3-2.
But the Cubs came right back in the bottom of the inning. Tyrone Taylor led off with a single and went to second on a single by Pedro Ramirez.
Carson Kelly then flied to right and Taylor took off for third. Then this happened [VIDEO].
Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz made a bad throw trying to get Ramirez advancing to second, and on that throw, Taylor scored to make it 4-2.
PCA was next [VIDEO].
That one clanged off the right-field foul pole, homer number 35 for Pete, and a 6-2 Cubs lead.
Again Gausman got taken deep in the third. After he walked De La Cruz, Sal Stewart homered and it was 6-4. That, though, would be as close as the Reds would get.
The Cubs added one in the fourth. PCA came up for the third time in four innings, with people cheering for another homer. Instead, he singled, then went to third on a single by Suzuki and scored on this single by Bregman [VIDEO].
So that’s 3-for-3 and four RBI for PCA in just four innings.
One more run scored off Gausman in the fifth to make it 7-5, and Gausman was removed after the fifth having thrown 102 pitches. It wasn’t a great outing, but with Cubs hitters smacking the ball all over the yard, it didn’t need to be.
The Cubs then began to pour it on in the bottom of the fifth. Taylor and Ramirez singled and Kelly went deep [VIDEO].
It’s now 10-5 Cubs, where it was in the seventh and that’s when the Cubs had even more offensive fun. Taylor and Kelly drew one-out walks, bringing up PCA again [VIDEO].
PCA three-homer game facts from John:
Pete Crow-Armstrong is the 30th different Cub since 1901 to hit three homers in a game. He is the third to join the club this season, after Dansby Swanson on July 1, at home vs. the Padres, and Alex Bregman, on Aug. 12 at Washington. Michael Busch did it on July 4 of last year at home vs. the Cardinals. So they have done it four times in less than 14 months, while playing 211 games.
The previous four had come over 23 years: Brant Brown in 1998, Moises Alou in 2003, Dioner Navarro in 2013 and Rafael Ortega in 2021.
The 30 players have done it a total of 45 times. Sammy Sosa leads, with six; followed by Ernie Banks, four; Dave Kingman and Aramis Ramirez, three; and Kris Bryant, Hank Sauer and Alfonso Soriano, two. PCA is the 23rd with one.
But the Cubs were not done in that inning. Suzuki walked and Bregman was hit by a pitch. One out later, Nico Hoerner came to the plate. He had gone 0-for-4 up to this point, but his single scored Suzuki to make it 14-5 [VIDEO].
Just a bit of an interruption of all this hitting to show you that the Cubs also played some D in this game. Here’s a nice stop by Bregman that ended the top of the eighth [VIDEO].
At first it looked like Bregman had caught the ball, but he immediately threw to first. He knew he hadn’t, and on replay you can see the ball hit the dirt first. Nice grab.
With a nine-run deficit the Reds brought in backup catcher Jose Trevino to throw the bottom of the eighth. Taylor blooped a single to right, his fourth hit of the game. Ramirez flied to center, and then Taylor scored on a double by Kelly [VIDEO].
That brought up PCA. As you can imagine, with a 15-5 lead he was absolutely, positively trying to hit a home run. Who could blame him in that situation? Instead, he grounded out and left to a huge ovation.
But the Cubs were not done hitting homers! Suzuki blasted one into the bleachers to make it 17-5 [VIDEO].
Colin Rea, who hadn’t pitched since a week ago Friday (and only once since Aug. 15) threw two scoreless innings to finish things up. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
A note on the three-run homers by PCA and Kelly from John:
The three-run homers by Carson Kelly and Pete Crow-Armstrong raised the Cubs’ total this season to 30 with two men on base, breaking the team record for such homers, set in 2017. They hit 28 in 2008, 27 last year and 26 in 1930.
Their 30 this year are the most by any team. The Nationals went into today with 26; the Mariners, 24; and the Brewers and Yankees, 23.
And here are PCA’s postgame comments on his big day [VIDEO].
It was a fantastic day in and around Wrigley Field, both during and before the game. Here’s the full 150th anniversary pregame ceremony, which was well done, and it was wonderful to see all these Cubs greats together on the field:
The Cubs will go for the series win against the Reds Sunday evening at Wrigley Field — remember, this was originally a 1:20 p.m. CT game, it was moved for NBC, which is featuring it on Sunday Night Baseball at 6:20 p.m. CT. Announcers will be Jason Benetti, Anthony Rizzo and Jeff Brantley.
Starters for the game Sunday: Shōta Imanaga for the Cubs and Chase Burns for the Reds. Let’s hope the Cubs can start another winning streak here.
