Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong makes NL MVP case with 3-homer day

Posted August 29, 2026 6:46 pm

By Sahadev Sharma

Pete Crow-Armstrong continued his MVP push with the first three-homer game of his career in Saturday’s 17-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

“Sometimes you feel it in your bones that you got a day like today in you,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And I did today.”

Crow-Armstrong added a single during a four-hit game and earned a standing ovation from a full house at Wrigley Field after grounding out in his final at-bat in the eighth inning. This was after the crowd yet again chanted “MVP! MVP!” following his third home run of the game.

“I’m just grateful,” Crow-Armstrong said. “This is the best place to play. You hear it from everybody. People love coming to play here on the road. We’re lucky enough to do it 81 games out of the season. The MVP chants are cool, but it’s cooler when we sing the song after a win like today.”

Crow-Armstrong kicked the scoring off in the first inning with his eighth leadoff home run of the season. It put him in second place all time for leadoff homers in a season for the Cubs behind Alfonso Soriano (12).

“It’s cool to see a guy in the leadoff position do that,” starter Kevin Gausman said. “The first at-bat of the game and people are on the edge of their seat.”

Crow-Armstrong leads all of baseball with 9.1 WAR (according to FanGraphs), well ahead of his main competition for NL MVP, Shohei Ohtani (6.9). Ohtani, whose offensive production isn’t far off from Crow-Armstrong’s, has a case built on his ability to both pitch and hit. But with Ohtani’s return to the mound remaining in question, Crow-Armstrong’s combination of elite offense, defense and base-running skills makes him the front-runner for MVP as September approaches.

“I think he can change a game in so many different ways,” veteran third baseman Alex Bregman said. “One day it’s three homers, the next day it’s making three diving plays or just running down balls that nobody can catch in center field, the next day it’s stealing third and the ball going into left field and him scoring. There’s just so many different things he can do on a baseball field and impact a baseball game. He energizes the whole group.”

Along with leading baseball in fWAR, Crow-Armstrong is now tied for third with 36 home runs and second behind Yordan Alvarez with 158 wRC+. His 32 stolen bases rank fifth in that category. He’s widely considered one of the best defenders in baseball, leading the league in Fielding Run Value and second with 23 Outs Above Average, behind Bobby Witt Jr.’s 24.

“You see guys do this,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It doesn’t happen a lot, but it’s the seasons that you remember somebody having. We’re lucky to be a part of it. As a fan in the stands, for the teammates, for the coaching staff, watching somebody perform like this is something special.”

Only four other Cubs have delivered a 9-plus fWAR season: Rogers Hornsby (11), Sammy Sosa (9.9), Ernie Banks (9.7) and Ron Santo (9.5). With 27 games remaining, Crow-Armstrong is on pace to pass all but Hornsby — and could be within shouting distance of the top spot when all is said and done.

Saturday happened to be the day the Cubs honored the 150th anniversary team, a season-long celebration that culminated in a memorable ceremony before the game.

“The ceremony before the game was awesome,” Counsell said. “When I walked down the tunnel and got a chance to see all the players, I was like a kid. The greatness of the players, I don’t know if I fully grasped before the game. Seeing them all in one place was something pretty cool.”

Twenty-three members of that team were present on Saturday, including Sosa, who was there to witness Crow-Armstrong’s feat and even felt it might happen.

“I saw him in the lobby walking in earlier today,” Crow-Armstrong said. “He was just telling me to keep going, and he’s not satisfied. I love that kind of stuff, and before the game today we were in the cage talking again. He said, ‘I want three out of you today. I need three.’ Sure enough — I don’t know what he passed down to me. Weird sh — like that happens in this game.”