This time, the shirtless dudes were on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s side.
A little over two weeks ago, the “Tarps Off” crowd in St. Louis rained chants of “O-VER-RATE-ED!” down on the Cubs’ star center fielder, only for him to deposit a home run 444 feet right into their laps.
Monday night, after Crow-Armstrong hit for the 13th cycle in club history, six young fans were shown on the Jumbotron. Sans shirts, they also had a message for Wrigleyville’s favorite player, painted on their chests one letter at a time:
“MVPETE.”
Who knows if that’s how this season will end, if Crow-Armstrong’s scalding hot few weeks are just a summertime streak or the start of something truly special?
But he’s looked capable of just about anything lately. He’s looked anything but overrated.
“Watching him every day,” starting pitcher Shota Imanaga said through an interpreter after the game, “he’s a player that overcomes your imagination.”
Huge moments – as big as they can get halfway into June, at least – have been following Crow-Armstrong around. After socking that moonshot into the teeth of those Missouri hecklers, he homered and came through with a walk-off hit to beat the A’s and had a two-homer game – including a game-tying shot with the Cubs down to their last out – in a walk-off win over the Giants.
After Monday, it’s time for a new No. 1.
But Crow-Armstrong – who went leadoff homer, triple, double, single for a reverse cycle – wasn’t exactly overcome with glee in his postgame media session, thinking about much more than accomplishing a baseball rarity.
Instead, he was bothered by the mistake that immediately followed, when he was picked off first base while still being cheered.
“We haven’t really been producing like we are so capable of doing,” he said. “When the ultimate goal is to win every ballgame that you step out on the field for, it’s really easy to highlight the stuff you’re not so happy about and you’ve got to make sure never happens again.
“I did everything I could to help the team, but I also had a real lapse in focus. And that really could have hurt us tonight.”
Indeed, on a night where Crow-Armstrong continued his torrid heater – since May 30, he’s batting a ridiculous .453 with seven homers and 14 extra-base hits – the Cubs nearly lost, heading into the bottom of the ninth down a run to baseball’s worst team.
Like he acknowledged after winning NL Player of the Week honors a week ago, Crow-Armstrong can’t drag the Cubs out of their early-summer stumble by himself. There were mistakes aplenty Monday night. In addition to the pickoff, in addition to the Cubs stranding Crow-Armstrong after his leadoff triple in the third and one-out double in the fifth, relievers issued a bases-loaded walk and gave up a three-run homer. The team was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 15 men on base.
“A lot felt like it didn’t go right,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Pete had an incredible night. Shota had a really good night. And then a lot of other things felt like they didn’t go right.”
And yet, a win. The Cubs loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, getting a game-tying base hit from Pedro Ramirez and a walk-off walk from Matt Shaw to score a 5-4 win over the Rockies.
“We are a scrappy team,” Crow-Armstrong said, “but we’re also going to be a team that feels more dangerous than scrappy once stuff gets rolling again.”
It will take so much more than just “MVPETE” to turn the Cubs back into the team they were earlier in the season, when walk-off wins like this were propelling them to the top of the NL Central and into the upper echelon of baseball’s championship contenders.
They’ll need more consistent offensive success. They’ll need more consistent pitching production. And they’ll need contributions from everyone.
“When you talk about how you’re going to need the whole roster to help you win games, that’s what happened tonight,” Counsell said. “That’s why you win, because you get a bunch of guys on the roster to maybe pick another guy up. That’s what they did tonight.”