ANAHEIM, Calif. — Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong borrowed a piece of wisdom from Justin Turner while working through a recent slump.
“It’s not actually a process or a step-by-step or anything, but to me it is,” Crow-Armstrong told the Sun-Times recently. “It’s, ‘You always check your timing and then your [bat] path.’ ’’
Crow-Armstrong’s offensive production has been down in August after consistently coming through as one of the Cubs’ top hitters in the first four months of the season.
On Friday, he entered the series opener against the Angels with a .154 batting average and .422 OPS over the last three weeks.
But all those negatives seemed moot for at least a day as PCA’s 396-foot solo home run with one out in the ninth inning gave the Cubs a 3-2 victory.
“I’m seeing the ball really well right now,” Crow-Armstrong said last week, “and just waiting to match it back up with the physical.”
Manager Craig Counsell often has said this year that great seasons need surprises. And in the Cubs’ torrid start to the season, Crow-Armstrong was that surprise on offense.
The Cubs had seen his growth on offense last year and hoped for more of it. But they didn’t expect the kind of power numbers he put up in the first half.
He had matched his career home-run total by early May. And by the middle of June, he doubled it as the first player this year to reach the 20-20 mark in homers and stolen bases. He was a runaway All-Star starter, the first such nod of his career, and solidly in the National League MVP conversation.
“The stretch that he was on was almost unconscious at times,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “The way that he hits the ball so hard, and he’s in the air so much, he’s not on the ground, good results happen when you do that, even when you’re off the barrel.”
Crow-Armstrong’s timing was synced up, which allowed him to do damage even on pitches significantly below and above the strike zone. And his bat path stayed in the strike zone longer with natural loft, a hallmark of Crow-Armstrong’s ideal swing.
During his offensive dip this month, a high ground-ball rate, a season-high 43.2%, seems to be a major culprit. But timing and swing path can contribute to such a spike.
“A lot of times if you’re late, then you compensate,” Crow-Armstrong said. “If you’re early, you compensate. So the balls in the ground come in any shape or form.”
Sometimes fixing the timing fixes the problem without having to make other swing changes. But if the struggles persist, the bat path might be at the root.
“That’s been the funny part: The timing has actually been pretty good,” Crow-Armstrong said. “We’ve run the tests, and the timing has been fine. I was late, but it was a lot of late because of something. And then vice versa, it was a lot of something because of being late.”
Those “somethings” essentially boiled down to his bat path being a little flat and indirect, Crow-Armstrong said. But any recent tweaks have been minor.
“Sometimes you just go through some spells where you just don’t get it on the barrel like you want to,” Kelly said.
The Cubs also have observed an adjustment by pitchers in the way they’re attacking Crow-Armstrong.
“They’re a little more protective of what kind of damage they’re willing to give up early in the count with him,” Kelly said. “Early on, people were still trying to get him to chase below the zone, and they would miss up. Now they’re trying to miss a little bit more away and then come in late, try to elevate late. So they’re moving around the zone a little bit more and not just trying to get him to chase outside of it.”
Teams also are bringing in left-handed relievers specifically to face Crow-Armstrong. In those cases, he doesn’t get the benefit of watching that pitcher face another left-handed hitter such as Kyle Tucker before stepping up to the plate himself.
“It’s never easy to digest when you’re playing like this,” Crow-Armstrong said.
