CHICAGO — As soon as the baseball hit the leather of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s glove, the Cubs’ center fielder spun around to face the fans going crazy in the bleachers. He pumped his left fist once. And then he did it again, and again, and again.
The ball in Crow-Armstrong’s possession was the final out to clinch a 3-1 win over the Padres in Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series on Thursday at Wrigley Field. It was a winner-take-all matchup, and Crow-Armstrong sat at a podium before the game and said that the Cubs “owe more playoff baseball” to the fans who turned the Friendly Confines into a tinderbox for three days.
“That’s real,” Crow-Armstrong said of the atmosphere. “I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t thinking about being able to turn around and say something to those people out there. We owe everything to those people coming out and showing up every day. They’re just as much a part of this as these people in this clubhouse.”
Crow-Armstrong also knows that a lot of the fans show up to watch him play, and the 23-year-old All-Star embraces that responsibility, even as he finds himself under a microscope and in the spotlight simultaneously. Well, with the season on the line, the kid delivered on his pregame declaration, making a defensive gem that defied Statcast in addition to churning out three hits.
And then in the clubhouse, Crow-Armstrong and his teammates were letting it rip.
The plastic sheets protected the lockers in the circular room, which was designed perfectly for the party to congregate to the center. The champagne was flying in celebration of the Cubs’ first playoff series win at home since winning the pennant in 2016. The North Siders had not won a playoff series since the ‘17 NL Division Series against the Nationals — and it was Chicago’s first victory in a win-or-go-home game at Wrigley Field.
“It was a good series, hard fought, tight, a lot of big moments,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “There’s a lot of hurt guys in that clubhouse, but we left it all out on the field.”
Now, the Cubs have a date with the rival Brewers, who won the NL Central and earned the bye to the Division Series round since they had an MLB-best 97 wins. Roughly 90 miles separate Wrigley Field and American Family Field, but this will mark the first time the clubs square off in a playoff setting.
“It feels fitting, right?” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said with a smile, as the party raged on behind him.
To punch their ticket, the North Siders put their brand of baseball on full display in the series. Shortstop Dansby Swanson put on a defensive clinic to lead Chicago’s three-game masterclass in run prevention. Veteran Jameson Taillon took the ball in the clincher and set the tone with four scoreless innings, handing things over to the Cubs’ unheralded, but dominant relief corps.
There were contributions throughout the lineup — punctuated by an insurance-notching solo blast by Michael Busch in the seventh — but there was no denying how Crow-Armstrong impacted the game. That felt important after the young center fielder fielded multiple questions about his slow start to the series (0-for-6 with five strikeouts in Games 1-2).
“I’m just really happy that he just laid it on the line,” said Swanson, droplets of champagne covering his goggles. “In moments when you may not feel like you’ve played your best or as good as you’re capable, you can kind of shy away from just laying it out there. He just went for it and I loved it.”
With two outs in the first inning, Padres star Manny Machado — the resident villain after his game-changing home run in Game 2 — sent a pitch from Taillon on a low line to center at 111.2 mph, per Statcast. Crow-Armstrong bolted in and to his left with a jump of +12.8 feet, snaring the ball with a sliding catch before it could reach the grass. The play had just a 10% catch probability.
“It’s probably one of those catches that he made look a lot easier than it was,” Hoerner said. “He’s always got those five-star catches that he makes look very simple. It was incredible.”
In the second inning, Padres starter and former Cubs ace Yu Darvish slipped into a bases-loaded jam after allowing two hits and hitting Carson Kelly with a pitch. That set the stage for Crow-Armstrong to slice a pitch from Darvish into left-center for an RBI single that gave the Cubs a 1-0 advantage.
At first base, Crow-Armstrong looked to the Cubs’ dugout and pumped his arms and yelled.
“The playoffs often give you a great example of what it means to be a Major League Baseball player,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “You have two offensive games that you’re not really happy with, you’ve got to show up the next day with the right mindset and not try to do everything, and stay within what you’re good at.
“Pete has the ability to deliver the spectacular and deliver greatness, and he had a heck of a game today. Heck of a game.”
“I don’t handle my failure very well,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think that’s going to be a really good part of my growth as a baseball player and as a Major Leaguer. But anything like that goes away — any frustration, anything — that all goes away when you get to share it with these people.”
That includes those fans in the bleachers.
“Being able to turn around every day for 81 games,” Crow-Armstrong said, “and actually see peoples’ faces and kind of see what they’re feeling and hear things they’re saying, I really do believe I have a relationship with every single one of them. It was only right that I shared that with them for a second.”
