Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Cubs have a night to forget in St. Louis

New York Times

4 hours ago

ST. LOUIS — Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Cubs have hit a low point in what's otherwise been a season full of highs. In a year in which he's emerged as an MVP candidate and one of the faces of the game, Crow-Armstrong had a night to forget in Tuesday's 8-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
In a game the Cubs lost by one run, Crow-Armstrong made a mental mistake on defense and a questionable decision at the plate, the first leading to a Cardinals run and the second costing the Cubs a chance to score the equalizer.
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With one out in the fourth inning and three runs already in for St. Louis, Alec Burleson hit a 402-foot fly ball to center field. Crow-Armstrong camped under the ball on the track and made an easy catch, gently turning into the padded wall, briefly putting his back to the play as he thought the inning had ended.
Crow-Armstrong likely heard calls from the infield that Masyn Winn was tagging from second, and he quickly perked up and fired the ball to Nico Hoerner. Winn was hustling from the get-go, rounding third nearly as the ball was caught by Hoerner, who made an errant throw home as the Cardinals scored their eighth run of the game.
Crow-Armstrong's bad night didn't end there. In the seventh, with the Cubs having closed the deficit to within one, runners were on the corners with just one out. Crow-Armstrong, batting cleanup, stepped to the plate against lefty JoJo Romero.
After taking a first-pitch strike, Crow-Armstrong laid down a bunt that dribbled about halfway between home and the mound. Romero fielded the ball cleanly and easily got Crow-Armstrong out at first. While Seiya Suzuki was able to advance to second, Kyle Tucker barely drifted off third. Two pitches later, Dansby Swanson fouled out to end the threat.
Crow-Armstrong was waiting at his locker for the media after the game, clearly upset with his performance. He agreed that it was as simple as forgetting the outs in the moment, despite announcing the situation just moments before.
'We give the outs every out and I gave two outs,' he said. 'So can't really do much about that.'
His manager wasn't about to excoriate the MVP candidate for a rare misstep.
'He just made a mistake,' manager Craig Counsell said. 'Obviously lost track of the outs and it's just a mistake.'
Pete Crow-Armstrong forgot how many outs there were, and Masyn Winn capitalized for the Cardinals.
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Jameson Taillon was on the mound for the defensive miscue. The starter has been strong for much of the season, but like the team, has hit a rough patch. His bad outing last Thursday was the start of the Cubs' current skid, losing five of six games.
'He's been so good for us this year,' Taillon said. 'Obviously, he's one of the best defenders in baseball; that's just a freak thing. He takes a lot of pride in his defense. Takes a lot of pride in being a great teammate. I'm not too worried about it. I'm just mad at myself for giving up the homers and giving up a lot of hard contact. I'm not too concerned with the eighth run I gave up; I'm concerned with all eight.'
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With regards to the bunt, Counsell said Crow-Armstrong did that on his own. While the manager didn't make the call, he explained Crow-Armstrong's thinking.
'It's against a left-handed pitcher,' Counsell said. 'He wants the ball in play, that's what he's thinking, just get the ball in play. And he made a poor bunt.'
Entering play on Tuesday, Crow-Armstrong had a 31.5 percent strikeout rate against lefties. Against righties, it's 10 points lower. But the decision was still perplexing. Crow-Armstrong also had 10 extra-base hits against lefties this season, including five home runs. When he does make contact, it's often in the air. Even if it were on the ground, his tremendous speed means a double play is unlikely.
'That was an attempt for a little push bunt and try to bunt for a base hit,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'I didn't do a good job of playing the game of baseball today.'
Perhaps that's true. But he wasn't the only one. In his first 14 starts of the season, Taillon had a 3.48 ERA with a 0.98 WHIP while delivering 10 quality starts. But over his last two outings, Taillon has combined for eight innings and 13 runs allowed. With three more home runs given up, he's at 21 on the season, second-most in all of baseball and matching his total from last season.
'It felt like the game was pretty easy for me there for six weeks or whatever,' Taillon said. 'Now it's really hard again. You just expect that at some point in the season, and it's about punching back and finding a way to fix it as fast as possible.'
For Swanson, he's batting fifth in a potent lineup and coming up with runners on base quite regularly. On Tuesday, he grounded out to end the game with runners on second and third. He failed to come through after Crow-Armstrong laid down his ill-fated bunt. On the season, Swanson is hitting .141 with runners in scoring position with a .218 slugging percentage. With nobody on, he has a .279 batting average with a .508 slugging percentage. Twelve of his 15 homers have come with the bases empty.
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'Really, all year I've been pretty bad at it, to be honest,' Swanson said. 'I think a lot of it is being able to simplify and focus on hitting the ball somewhere and good things will be able to happen. I'm not really holding my end of the bargain up in that regard. It's definitely something that frustrates me and I gotta be better with.'
This rough patch doesn't fall on one person. And it also isn't a sign that this team is falling apart. When the Cubs went to Philadelphia earlier this month, that team had lost nine of 10. They followed that up with a 9-2 run. The New York Yankees recently lost seven of eight as their strong offense briefly disappeared. The New York Mets are currently sputtering, losing 10 of their last 11.
This is a baseball season. Long and winding. The key for the Cubs is finding a way to quickly pull themselves out of this mess. They have to avoid what happened in the previous two seasons and make sure this isn't a tailspin, but rather a bump in the road.
'It's part of this game,' Swanson said. 'So much about a season is being able to weather times when you're not feeling like you're playing up to your best as a group. I know this group is tough enough to get over it. Sometimes it's just a part of it and we gotta keep coming and look for ways to continue to get better.'
In just a week, the Cubs have gone from having a 6 1/2 game lead in the division, their largest of the year, to just 2 1/2 games, their smallest since May 27. The Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers are breathing down their necks.
They need to flush the last week of baseball as quickly as possible. How? Perhaps it's as easy as Crow-Armstrong said: 'Go to sleep and wake up.'
(Photo of Pete Crow-Armstrong looking on after Masyn Winn scored from second on a sacrifice fly: Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)