CHICAGO — As the baseball skipped away from Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez, Pete Crow-Armstrong easily advanced from second to third base, slowing up as he approached the bag. The Cubs center fielder kept his eye on the plate and saw an opening with reliever Clay Holmes still several steps from home.
Crow-Armstrong turned on the burners and sprinted in, sliding across the plate and popping to his feet to roar along with the Wrigley Field crowd. In a 10-3 romp over the Mets, his fifth-inning scramble was a snapshot into the Cubs’ desire to swiftly turn the page on their recent slide and get closer to wrapping up home-field advantage in the playoffs’ Wild Card round.
Crow-Armstrong certainly electrified the crowd, but the audience was already revved up plenty throughout the evening.
“Wrigley’s already got it in them,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Everybody that shows up, they’re ready to party. I think everybody knows that we’re getting close to October baseball and I think, just with that feeling in the air, being able to embrace that is the most fun thing ever.”
And following a five-game skid that represented Chicago’s longest losing streak of the season — one that immediately followed the wild champagne celebration in Pittsburgh after clinching a postseason berth — the North Siders looked properly motivated.
“It’s a goal of ours, for sure, to be at home,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Until you win the last game of the World Series, there is another goal in front of you. And that’s the next goal in front of us. You’re going to get a unanimous vote — we’d rather play at home.”
Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd has certainly been at home at Wrigley Field, and that continued to be the case on Wednesday night.
Boyd improved to 12-1 on the season at Wrigley Field behind 5 1/3 innings in which he limited the Mets to two runs. A two-run homer by Alvarez was the only damage against the veteran Boyd, who spun four no-hit innings before flinching in the fifth. He put a period on his All-Star season with a 3.21 ERA over 31 starts and 179 2/3 innings.
Boyd also finished the regular season with a 2.51 ERA at home. To find a Cubs pitcher with at least a dozen wins and an ERA lower than Boyd’s at Wrigley Field, you have to go back to 1992, when Hall of Famer Greg Maddux went 12-4 with a 1.91 ERA.
“They just gave you so much energy,” Boyd said of the Wrigley faithful. “It felt like a playoff atmosphere. But they’ve been doing that since April.”
Chicago’s offense did its part with a five-run outburst in the third that got things rolling. Ian Happ sparked things with a two-run double with the bases loaded, and Moisés Ballesteros (RBI single) and Seiya Suzuki (RBI double) followed suit to chase Mets starter Jonah Tong from the game. Matt Shaw (solo blast in the fourth) and Michael Busch (two-run shot in the sixth) helped pile more on.
“It’s our brand of baseball,” Boyd said. “We slugged. We scrapped across runs. We manufactured runs. We kind of did a little bit of everything. I mean, that’s the potency of this lineup. We can beat you in multiple ways.”
Crow-Armstrong put that on full display in the fifth inning.
“That’s when instinct kind of kicks in and takes over,” he said. “I’m always kind of looking for plays like that. They just rarely happen.”
When the sinker from Holmes hit the ground and bounced high behind the plate, Crow-Armstrong kept his eyes on the pitcher while advancing to third base. Holmes — frustrated over losing his footing on the mound — did not immediately hustle to cover the plate.
“My mind went straight to the mound,” Holmes said. “I lost track of the runner there and just didn’t have enough time to get to the plate, really. My attention wasn’t really on the runner.”
It was all Crow-Armstrong needed.
“Pete is a threat in all aspects,” Boyd said. “If you have a slight lapse in judgement, he can take advantage of it.”
And now the Cubs are one step closer to bring playoff baseball back to Wrigley Field.
“Being able to give these fans October baseball,” Crow-Armstrong said, “that’s going to be real special.”
