Just as Alex Bregman hasn’t sunk Cubs alone, Pete Crow-Armstrong can’t save them as ‘one-man wrecking crew’

DENVER — The way frustrated fans have let third baseman Alex Bregman have it recently, you’d think he was the sole reason the Cubs are in their current funk.

Bregman was the one taking the blame after Sunday’s loss, talking about how “terrible” he’s been this season.

But obviously, in a team sport such as baseball, one player alone doesn’t have that much power — even if he’s the one with the big contract and the one standing in front of the cameras talking about his lack of contributions after his team slid from atop the National League Central to just a shade over .500.

“It’s not surprising that he’d go out and say that. But it’s on all of us,” center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said Tuesday. “Nothing’s really been good about the last few weeks. … That’s not on Alex Bregman alone. It’s on all of us.”

Truer words, Mr. National League Player of the Week.

Though the Cubs have not stopped their early-summer free fall, at least Crow-Armstrong has come around in a big way with the bat. After delivering that monster homer against the Cardinals two weekends ago, he earned baseball’s weekly honor by going 11-for-25 during the most recent home stand, smacking four home runs, driving in six runs and stealing a couple bags in six games.

The moments will stick in fans’ minds more than the numbers. He homered and came through with the game-winning knock last Thursday against the A’s and hit a pair of homers — including a game-tying shot in the bottom of the ninth — Saturday against the Giants.

Still, after the Cubs’ 2-4 showing, with series losses to both the A’s and Giants, Crow-Armstrong wasn’t exactly over the moon when he discussed his award win.

“It’s nice recognition,” he said. “Realistically, I would have liked to come through in some different spots. I don’t really feel very good about the week that we had.

“The recognition’s cool. I’m just looking to put this [week] behind me and start winning some ballgames again.”

Just as Bregman isn’t the only guy dragging the lineup down of late, Crow-Armstrong isn’t going to rescue it all by his lonesome. Although it’s pretty easy to argue the Cubs would have gone 0-6 last week without him, they’re not going to stop the bleeding if his bat is the only one to come to life.

“The same way that it’s not on one person in this clubhouse [to blame for the bad performances], I’m realistic with how this game works, and I can’t go win every game for us, either,” Crow-Armstrong said. “We’re making some mistakes right now that can’t happen and that we normally don’t make.

“It’s just understanding how the game of baseball works and understanding you’re not going to be able to go be a one-man wrecking crew.”

Because of his numbers and his candor, Bregman grabbed headlines for his postgame comments Sunday, but it’s not as though he’s the only Cubs hitter who knows things haven’t been up to expectations this season. This is a team that has championship-level goals but came into Tuesday with the lowest slugging percentage in baseball since May 9.

This supposedly easier stretch of schedule — 22 consecutive games against teams that started June with sub-.500 records — got off to a bad start last week. But a road trip through Denver and San Francisco provides more opportunities against the NL’s two worst teams.

Will the Cubs take advantage? Will more than one guy finally start producing enough to start changing the North Side narrative?

Or will another hot hitter spend next week talking somberly about everything that went wrong?

“We have an accountable group,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “They understand what their job is. They know what we haven’t been doing. We can talk about it a lot,
but we’ve also got to understand we’ve got to go play the game and play it well.

“That’s, ultimately, how you change the story. It’s the only way to change the story.”