Pete Crow-Armstrong goes yard twice vs. Dodgers, becomes first Cubs player to nab consecutive 25-HR, 25-SB seasons
Shohei Ohtani tattooed the seventh pitch of Wednesday’s series finale between his Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. With an exit velocity of 110.2 mph, the ball jumped off his bat and whipped over the right-field wall.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, a contender to dethrone Ohtani as the National League’s MVP, answered in the bottom half of the inning with some leadoff fireworks of his own.
PCA teed off on the first pitch Dodgers southpaw Eric Lauer tossed, a 90.2-mph four-seam fastball. His game-tying solo shot soared 420 feet to center. It also made him the first player in Cubs history to mount consecutive seasons with at least 25 homers and 25 stolen bases, according to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.
Pete Crow-Armstrong wastes no time responding 💥
— MLB (@MLB) August 5, 2026
After Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a homer, PCA gets it right back with a first-pitch leadoff dinger! https://t.co/MtRmskiBWjpic.twitter.com/I32B4tym1F
Crow-Armstrong’s response, and MVP case, didn’t end there. The next inning, he ripped an RBI double that bounced off the right-field wall. Two innings after that, in the fourth, he launched another big fly off Lauer. That two-run dinger traveled 405 feet, again to right. The no-doubter lifted Chicago to a 5-1 advantage. Soon after, an RBI single from Alex Bregman extended that lead to 6-1.
Crow-Armstrong, who entered the day leading all MLB players in wins above replacement (7.0), per Baseball Reference, showcased his massive improvement against left-handed pitching this season.
That’s a big reason why his OPS is well north of .900 in 2026. Crow-Armstrong now has 26 home runs and 28 stolen bases on the year, his first after signing a six-year extension reportedly worth $115 million.
Crow-Armstrong has been at the heart of Chicago’s roller-coaster campaign. Like the team he stars for, the two-time All-Star center fielder has had to navigate a few valleys, notably a tumultuous stretch in May that saw him beefing with fansat the White Sox’s Rate Field and then committing head-scratching errors on back-to-back days. That said, there have been far more peaks, both for him and a Cubs squad that’s authored a pair of 10-game win streaks and is comfortably occupying the NL’s top wild-card spot.
The 24-year-old PCA has proven plenty clutch. His timely power was especially on display in June, like when he made up for another uncharacteristic defensive gaffe with a redemptive homer and then a walk-off single against the Athletics; or when he smacked a pair of game-tying homers, including one with two outs in the ninth, amid a thrilling 10-inning victory over the San Francisco Giants. That same month, he hit for the cycle before the Cubs walked off the Colorado Rockies.
This story is being updated.
