LOS ANGELES — Given the small sample sizes, it can be difficult this early in the season to separate trends from flukes.
Going into the Cubs’ 4-2 win against the Dodgers on Sunday, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong had narrowed his focus to one area: Was he swinging at good pitches?
“I don’t care about the percentages or anything like that,” he said when presented with the fact his contact rate on pitches in the strike zone was about 83%, despite his .197 batting average. “I haven’t been hitting the ball very hard, so that obviously doesn’t have much of a positive effect on what’s going on.”
Then he turned around and hit three balls very hard.
“To hit homers off [Tyler] Glasnow and [Blake] Treinen, not easy to do — and then the triple [in the ninth inning],” manager Craig Counsell said after a series-clinching game. “Just a big offensive day against some really good pitching. It’s good from Pete’s perspective. Off to a little bit of a slow start, but to have a game where you’re kind of the guy that drives the bus offensively, so to speak, that’s a really good thing and great for your confidence.”
The first home run off Glasnow in the third had an exit velocity of 103.3 mph; Statcast estimated it would have traveled 370 feet if it hadn’t hit the foul pole. The second homer in the seventh off Treinen was even harder: 106.1 mph and 412 feet. Two innings later against Jack Dreyer, Crow-Armstrong added the 90.8 mph triple up the right-field line for good measure.
He had sworn before the game he wasn’t going to let reports of extension talks — which have since been tabled — distract him from the season. His performance was a strong indication he could live up to his word.
Not to mention, his slow start this year doesn’t compare to past slumps. He still has made big plays on the bases and in the outfield. And although he went hitless against the Rangers last Wednesday in the last game of a homestand and Friday in the first of three games in Los Angeles, he had a three-hit game last Tuesday against the Rangers.
From a mental standpoint, it was nothing like Crow-Armstrong’s first major-league stint, when he had zero hits in 14 at-bats at the end of the 2023 season and had to go into the offseason still searching for his first knock.
“I just have a clue what I’m doing now,” he told the Sun-Times. “I know what I do well. And if I’m not doing it well at the time, I know I will do it well tomorrow, the next day, a week from now or a month from now.”
He now has major-league success to build upon after turning around his 2024 season with a hot second half. To do so, he added a leg kick midseason.
“Just to let me be free and athletic and use my body properly,” he said.
He found, however, that it was more difficult to repeat with every swing. So he cut it down going into this year.
“We’re just figuring out what’s consistent,” he said. “And that’s what we landed on for consistency.”
He’s also swinging a longer bat, by half an inch — an idea that hitting coach Dustin Kelly brought to him last year but they decided to delay when Crow-Armstrong found his offensive groove.
“The longer bat we can swing, the bigger bat we can swing, that you’re comfortable with, the better off most guys are,” Kelly said.
Crow-Armstrong’s bat speed is up this year, and his chase rate is down — 35.9% going into Monday compared to 41.4% last season. He was just getting under balls more often, according to Statcast.
And it was a matter of time before he had a game like Sunday’s.
“I love playing here,” Crow-Armstrong said afterward, surrounded by reporters at his locker at Dodger Stadium, his hometown park. “It’s a fun crowd, and I like the noise. I think the Cubbies like playing here, too.”
