Pete Crow-Armstrong has had an awful second half after his performance over the first three months of the season got him elected an All-Star starter.
Monday night in Pittsburgh, PCA hit his first home run in nearly a month and added a double to record his first game with two extra-base hits since July.
If PCA awakens for the rest of the season and into October, that will be an excellent catalyst for a Cubs team whose offense has been on hold seemingly forever. PCA’s game helped lead the Cubs to a 4-0
win over the Pirates in the series opener at PNC Park. After playing around .500 ball seemingly forever, the Cubs have now won five of their last six and have reached a season high at 22 games over .500.
Jameson Taillon and Braxton Ashcraft matched zeroes for the first two innings and then the Cubs got on the board in the third. After Matt Shaw walked and was caught stealing, Michael Busch smacked his 28th home run [VIDEO].
The Cubs weren’t done in that inning. Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ singled, with Nico taking third.
The extra base taken by Nico turned out to be important when he scored on a wild pitch [VIDEO].
The Cubs extended the lead in the fourth. PCA led off with a double and stole third, his 35th steal of the year. Then he scored on this double by Dansby Swanson [VIDEO].
PCA added a fourth run in the sixth with his 29th home run [VIDEO].
That ball was crushed! [VIDEO]
PCA looked much better and more confident at the plate in this game. Again, if he can recover his performance level of the first half, that is an enormous boost to this team.
While this varied offense was going on, Taillon was mowing down Pirates. He had one of his best outings of the year, six shutout innings while allowing just two hits. Here’s more on Taillon’s start [VIDEO].
Michael Soroka, just activated off the IL, threw the seventh and eighth. It was a bit of a shaky outing as he walked two and hit a batter, but it seemed reasonably good and his velocity also was good. He’ll join Aaron Civale and Javier Assad as relievers who can eat up multiple innings, a useful thing at this time of year.
Now the complaint department door gets opened because Porter Hodge, who’s been reasonably good recently (apart from the home run allowed the other day), had an awful ninth inning. He wound up loading the bases on a single and a pair of walks and had to be relieved by Brad Keller with two out after throwing 21 pitches — only eight of which were strikes.
It took Keller just four pitches to strike out Jared Triolo to end the game [VIDEO].
So this was a nice win, with the caveat that it will probably take a while for Hodge to get back into Craig Counsell’s circle of trust.
Here are some postgame comments from Taillon [VIDEO].
Note on PCA’s game from BCB’s JohnW53:
Pete Crow-Armstrong doubled and homered. He has done that three times this season. Seiya Suzuki has done it five times; Michael Busch, Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker, four each; Carson Kelly, twice; and Miguel Amaya, Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson once.
But PCA also stole a base. Only Tucker had done that before Monday.
One more fun fact about this game: Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski, just recalled by the Bucs, had been 5-for-6 with four home runs off Taillon before this game. Jamo struck him out twice.
The win reduced the Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot to 3, and when the Diamondbacks defeated the Giants later on Monday, that number dropped to 2. If the Cubs win Tuesday and the D-backs defeat the Giants again, both teams would be eliminated from catching the Cubs, as the Giants would have 76 losses while Arizona would have 75 and the Cubs have the tiebreaker over Arizona. The Reds also have 75 losses entering Tuesday’s action and could be eliminated from catching the Cubs if they lose to the Cardinals and the Cubs win. That’s the long way of saying: “It’s possible for the Cubs to clinch a postseason spot tonight, but a lot of stuff has to happen.”
Got all that? In addition, the Cubs’ magic number to clinch home field in a wild-card series dropped to 9.
The Cubs will go for the series win in Pittsburgh Tuesday evening, and there’s a first-rate pitching matchup: Cade Horton vs. Paul Skenes. Game time is again 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
