Pete Crow-Armstrong’s equipment is never safe, not even in the best of times.
But this road trip out West was not among the best of times, and the Diamondbacks’ game broadcast Wednesday was able to stitch together a somewhat lengthy montage of Crow-Armstrong taking out his frustrations over a 1-for-12 series in Arizona on helmets, gloves, bats and other gear.
If you run a Dick’s Sporting Goods and see this guy coming, maybe close up early.
These stretches will happen in even the greatest of individual seasons, and Crow-Armstrong is having one of those, doing the unthinkable by challenging two-way star Shohei Ohtani for the National League MVP.
But a tough road trip at the plate for Crow-Armstrong — it was only so tough; prior to three quiet days in the desert, he had four hits, two of them homers, in three days in Seattle — coincided with a somewhat chaotic stretch for the Cubs, who were walked off three times in six days out West, flying back to Chicago having dropped four of six contests.
“You don’t let a couple disappointing days fluster you,” left fielder Ian Happ said Tuesday. “You just come right back. That’s kind of been the M.O. of this team, you move on and tackle the next day.”
Widen the lens a tad, and the Cubs were involved in five walk-off games in nine days, having won the first two games of last week’s series with the White Sox in walk-off fashion.
“A little extreme,” manager Craig Counsell said Wednesday. “But you’re on the other side of it, too. … Major League Baseball teaches you really fast that you’ve got to think about the game for a little bit and then you cut the cord with that and move onto the next day.”
Righty reliever Jacob Webb served up a pair of walk-off homers in as many outings, but don’t fear a closer crisis; he’s the same pitcher who recorded 24 consecutive scoreless outings coming into the trip.
Perhaps more concerning, from a pitching standpoint, is lefty Shota Imanaga getting yanked after recording only six outs against the Mariners, the shortest outing of his career. Fellow southpaw Matthew Boyd had another bumpy ride in Seattle, but he bounced back nicely Wednesday in Phoenix, delivering his finest outing of the month.
The newcomers in the rotation looked dominant against the in-the-hunt D-backs, with righties Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes combining to throw 14 shutout innings and allow only five singles.
And while Crow-Armstrong was busy chucking anything he could find all over Chase Field — and going off on umpires after they missed a balk Wednesday — this was the same trip on which the Cubs’ lineup set a new franchise mark with 30 consecutive runs scored against opponents over the course of three days.
In other words, this trip didn’t ding this team’s confidence, even if it’s lost three of its last four series.
“Road trips are tough in August, and the whole month of August is a grind,” Crow-Armstrong said Wednesday. “We’re all just trying to keep our heads above water. There was a lot of good on this road trip.”
The Cubs still woke up Thursday with the fifth best record in baseball and their sights on chasing the same World Series goals they’ve had since the beginning.
“One of the impressive things about this group is it doesn’t change,” Happ said. “There’s been that identity — or ‘hunger,’ if you want to call it that — since Day 1. We came into spring training with it.
“The desire to go out and play this exceptional brand of baseball, it’s what the group brings every day. It’s the fun part of playing with a veteran group that’s been doing this so long. Everybody knows what the mission is, and it’s the guiding light.”
Whether it’s a veteran of last year’s champs seeing “something special” or the fresh eyes of a guy who pitched in the World Series last fall, these Cubs — even far from the best of times — still know where they’re capable of going.
“The sky’s the limit,” Gausman said Monday. “This defense, this offense, the pitchers that we have here, it’s a really great team. There’s not many weaknesses.”
