Pete Crow-Armstrong's Redemption Could Be Exactly What Chicago Cubs Needed

Pete Crow-Armstrong delivered his first career walk-off hit on the same night he misplayed another fly ball in the outfield.

Instead of absorbing a ninth straight defeat at Wrigley Field on Thursday, the Chicago Cubs capped a four-run ninth inning to avoid a sweep against the Athletics.

“Hopefully,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, “we tell that story in October.”

With the resurgence of the crosstown White Sox, the Cubs again have assumed the identity of Chicago’s Underachieving Baseball Squad. Yet with 99 games left entering Friday, there’s still plenty of time to rally.

It’s preferable to floundering, the team's undoubted position for the past month.

Fans at the Friendly Confines witnessed more signs during the series finale against the Athletics. Or were they simply the same ones on repeat?

In the top of the sixth, Crow-Armstrong lost a fly ball to center field that produced a two-run, inside-the-park home run from the Athletics’ Shea Langeliers.

“I was kind of just trotting down the line. I thought PCA was messing with me, like, ‘Oh, I don’t see it,’” Langeliers said. “Then I saw the ball coming down behind him and I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta go!’”

For his part, Crow-Armstrong didn’t bolt for his distant mental recesses after a gaffe that stretched the visitors’ lead to 4-0. Leading off the bottom of the inning, he drove a ball over the right field wall for his ninth homer this season and third in the past five games.

Once he came to bat against Luis Medina in the ninth – two on, two out and the score tied at 6 – the misplay seemed to be a distant memory.

“In the past I might have dwelt on that, and that always ends up affecting how you go about the rest of your day,” Crow-Armstrong said. “People having my back, me not hiding from the next at-bat, yeah, I’m growing up a little bit and I’m proud of that, but I’ve got to keep it going for the rest of the year.”

His teammates can attest. While Crow-Armstrong may be more visible given a gaudy offseason contract extension and viral moments including a potty-mouthed May 17 exchange with a heckling White Sox fan, others in the Chicago dugout have been culpable during the swoon.

Shortstop Dansby Swanson was batting .162 in his past 33 games before Thursday’s victory, which made the Cubs a mere 6-18 since May 8. That’s when they clobbered Texas for their 20th win in 23 games.

“The conviction from the group that ninth inning, that’s who we are,” Swanson said. “Just seeing guys come out and put together the at-bats … to be able to get that off our back a little bit was really important.”

Now the Cubs hope to build steam anew during a fortunate part of the schedule. Chicago has 12 straight games against the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies, who entered Friday with the lowest two winning percentages in the National League.

All skidding aside, the Cubs remain just 5 ½ games behind the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers as a weekend series with the Giants looms at Wrigley.

Of course, Chicago also is the fourth-best team in the only division in baseball that boasts every club over .500.

Whether Thursday’s win against the middling Athletics marks the turning point that spurs a run to a second straight postseason is too soon to tell.

It at least should show Cubs fans that it’s not too late to uncover their eyes, though.