On Thursday, Crow-Armstrong belted a pair of home runs to help power the Cubs to an 8-1 win over the Twins, eliciting some familiar “P-C-A!” chants from the Chicago fans on hand at Target Field. In the process, Crow-Armstrong became the fastest player in Cubs history to reach at least 25 homers and 25 steals in a season.
In fact, Crow-Armstrong — with 25 homers and 27 stolen bases on the year — is the fourth-fastest to a 25-25 showing in a season in MLB history, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs. Only Eric Davis (69 games in 1987), Alfonso Soriano (91 games in 2002) and Bobby Bonds (91 games in 1973) did so faster than Crow-Armstrong (92 games).
Crow-Armstrong launched a two-run homer off Twins right-hander Chris Paddack in the third inning and added a solo shot off lefty Anthony Misiewicz in the seventh, marking the Cubs outfielder’s fifth multihomer game this season. He is the first Cubs player with at least five multihomer games in one year since 2005 (Derrek Lee, eight) and the only Cubs player 23 years old or younger to achieve that feat.
Crow-Armstrong is also now just one homer shy of Kris Bryant’s club record for homers by a player 23 years old or younger. Bryant set the bar with 26 homers en route to the National League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2015.
When the smoke cleared, Crow-Armstrong finished the day 3-for-4 with a walk and double added to the mix. In the ninth, he sent a grounder up the middle and into shallow right-center field. Crow-Armstrong never broke stride, hustling into second (29.2 ft/sec sprint speed, per Statcast) before center fielder Harrison Bader could get a throw in on time.