CHICAGO \u2013 As Pete Crow-Armstrong came up with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, the Wrigley Field crowd chanted \u201cM-V-Pete! M-V-Pete!” \u2014 and not for the first time Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
The fans serenaded the Chicago star after his first home run, his 43rd to break Billy Williams’ Cubs record for left-handed hitters. They made their feelings known after his RBI triple and after his 44th home run.<\/p>\n
Even when Crow-Armstrong struck out on five pitches in the eighth, he still received a standing ovation on his way back to the dugout at the end of a 3 for 4 night with three RBIs and three runs in an 8-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves, his seventh multi-home-run game of the season.<\/p>\n
With Shohei Ohtani still on the injured list with right biceps inflammation, Crow-Armstrong keeps hitting home runs, closing in on the first 40-40 season in Cubs history, putting the finishing touches on his MVP case, at least as far as Cubs fans are concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re shaking your head in amazement, sometimes,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cIn amazement. You know, you don\u2019t get to see this. That\u2019s what I told Alex (Bregman): \u2018We don\u2019t get to see things like this.\u2019 You spend your whole life in baseball and you just don\u2019t see this happen on a baseball field. <\/p>\n
“You\u2019re grateful to be a part of it. You\u2019re grateful to see things like this. And then you\u2019re grateful the fans get to see a season like this. They\u2019re going to talk about it. They\u2019re going to tell their kids about it. They\u2019re going to tell their grandkids about a season like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet as he\u2019s gone from breakthrough player to MVP candidate to MVP favorite, Crow-Armstrong has been unfazed by the pressure, his performance unwavering as the Cubs chase a wild-card spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep it pretty simple,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cI enjoy just kind of laying low, as I always do and always will. I\u2019ve got a really nice support system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only one home run behind Philadelphia\u2019s Kyle Schwarber for the major league lead, Crow-Armstrong is hitting. 283 with 105 RBIs, 29 doubles and 37 stolen bases to go with Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field.<\/p>\n
Crow-Armstrong’s breakthrough season at age 24 has him at or near the top of every offensive metric in the NL while also tapping out the vocabulary of Wednesday’s winning starter, Shota Imanaga.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can always say he’s great, or he’s excellent, but really there’s no words to describe him,” Imanaga said through an interpreter. “So I’ll think of a new word in English for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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