Crow-Armstrong hits 40th homer of season, but Cubs fall to Miami

MIAMI — The memorable moments keep piling up in Pete Crow-Armstrong’s magical season.

After becoming the first Cub to produce back-to-back seasons with at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases last month, Crow-Armstrong slugged his 40th home run to tie the game in the fifth inning Sunday off Miami Marlins right-hander Tyler Phillips. The Cubs, though, couldn’t complete the sweep as the Marlins tagged right-hander Clay Holmes for a career-high eight runs in a 10-3 loss.

Although he notably doesn’t enjoy talking about his personal achievements during the season as someone who doesn’t set stat-specific goals for himself, Crow-Armstrong appreciated getting to experience “the big, round number,” as manager Craig Counsell put it, with his teammates.

“I got a lot of congrats throughout the rest of the game, even when people’s minds were probably elsewhere,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I really love this group of guys, so to share that with them is great.”

Crow-Armstrong turned on a first-pitch sweeper for a 111.2 mph rocket that stayed inside the right field foul pole, setting off “M-V-P” chants among the boisterous Cubs fans in LoanDepot Park. When he ran out to center field in the bottom of the inning, Crow-Armstrong acknowledged the Cubs fans sitting in the outfield.

“It might have been sweeter to do it at home, but we travel so well that there was still what felt like a pretty big group of Cubs fans out there, and I think tipping my cap and all that, it feels mandatory to do there, but I guess that’s also my way of saying thanks for freaking caravaning with us. They show up everywhere, so nice to be in Florida and still thank the people wearing our jerseys for sure.”

The milestone blast puts Crow-Armstrong in elite company in Cubs history.

The All-Star center fielder joined Billy Williams (42 in 1970) as the only left-handed hitters to reach 40 home runs in a season in the franchise’s 150-year history. He’s one of 10 Cubs to reach the mark — the 20th time overall — and the first since Derrek Lee hit 46 in 2005.

“It is a symbolic number, 40 home runs. It’s a hard number to get to and not many guys ever get to it in their career,” Counsell said. “So it was cool to see and the season’s not over. He’s got more to add to the number.”

Producing 40 home runs at his age adds to the rarity of his feat.

Crow-Armstrong is just the 13th lefty hitter in MLB history at 24 years old or younger to produce a 40-home-run season. Former teammate Cody Bellinger was the last to do it when he hit 47 in 2019 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Crow-Armstrong, at 24 years, 165 days old, became the youngest Cub to reach 40 home runs in a single season, passing Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, who was 24 years, 214 days old, when he hit the mark in 1955, ultimately finishing that season with 44.

“Power is more of a learned trait than we give it credit for, getting the ball in the air to the pole side is more of a learned part of hitting and an experienced part of hitting than I think sometimes we acknowledge,” Counsell said before Sunday’s game. “A lot of players can hit home runs in batting practice, like, nearly all of them can hit a lot of home runs in batting practice — to get to that power in a game is something that usually takes a while.

“But it’s a credit to Pete. Number one is his talent and then our hitting coaches have done a wonderful job crafting that and helping harness it and develop at a very fast pace.”

Crow-Armstrong, the front-runner for National League MVP, ended Sunday leading the majors in fWAR (9.6) while posting a .280/.374/.572 slash line, 96 RBIs, 106 runs scored, 33 stolen bases and a 157 wRC+. He is coming off NL Player of the Month for August, his second monthly award this season after also earning the recognition for his June performance, making him the first Cub to win multiple monthly awards since its inception in 1973.

When the Cubs signed him to a six-year, $115 million extension in March, which goes into effect next season, the organization knew they were getting an already elite defender and base runner with the potential to be a dangerous hitter after his impressive 2025 first half earned him his first All-Star Game honor.

But a 40-home-run season — which has the potential to be just the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history if Crow-Armstrong swipes seven more bases in the Cubs’ last 18 games — has his young career already reaching incredible levels.

“It’s so special, I probably take it for granted at times, but watching the consistency of the at-bats, that’s been an amazing transformation,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said last week. “A lot of coaches deserve a lot of credit, and Pete deserves the lion’s share of the credit for sticking with it. His decision-making in the box, I’ve never seen a player develop at this rate. This is like a quantum leap in terms of his decision-making.

“In terms of projections, we had this great floor and the offense was uncertain, I guess I would say, and then he’s just built on top of those blocks.”