ANAHEIM, Calif. — The last person to give Pete Crow-Armstrong an encouraging pat before his last at-bat Friday was Kyle Tucker, who’d snapped his personal month-long homerless streak in the first inning.
“I felt a little bit freed up for him,” Crow-Armstrong said after the Cubs’ 3-2 win Friday against the Angels. “And I think that honestly probably contributed to me taking my fourth at-bat after not really doing anything.”
In that fourth at-bat, Crow-Armstrong lifted a no-doubter into the right-field seats at Angel Stadium, giving the Cubs the lead in the top of the ninth inning.
PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG DELIVERS 💥 pic.twitter.com/f2KAFtW0Ev
— MLB (@MLB) August 23, 2025
“Two guys that needed a big hit, and just getting them a contribution to a W on the offensive side, it makes everybody feel good,” manager Craig Counsell said after the game. “The game doesn’t grant you any favors. … You’ve got to keep coming out and keep trying to do it. And those guys got the two big hits tonight.”
That had been a common occurrence in the first half, when the Cubs’ offense was clicking, and Tucker and Crow-Armstrong were the engines behind that success.
But they’ve both been in slumps as of late. Tucker’s kicked off in July and Crow-Armstrong’s in August.
Neither had homered in their last 25 games, before they ended those streaks Saturday.
“Kyle, he’s so pro,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Any guy with a track record like that, you’re always just kind of waiting for that one swing from him. And he got us off to a good start tonight.”
Tucker’s facial expression was stoic as he rounded the bases after his first-inning home run landed over the right-field fence, but the visitors dugout was raucous.
“I haven’t done that in a while,” Tucker said. “So it was nice to be back doing that and helping us win.”
Touch ’em all, King Tuck! pic.twitter.com/Z9qMcpXyeu
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 23, 2025
It was the second-longest homerless streak of his career, coming in behind a 28-game stretch in 2018, his rookie season. Friday marked Tucker’s second day back from a three-game break.
In the ninth inning, as Crow-Armstrong stepped up to the plate against veteran reliever Kenley Jansen, Counsell could hear assistant hitting coach John Mallee “almost praying.”
“‘Make it your first one in a while,’ he said right before the pitch,” Counsell said. “He got a pitch to do something with, and did something good.”
After Cubs closer Daniel Palencia secured the save, Crow-Armstrong’s homer stood as the game-winner.
“That feeling of contributing, that’s what I’m looking forward to build off of,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I haven’t played my part up to this point since the [All-Star] break. So, it’s definitely a feeling to build off of.”
Assad shines
As the Cubs figure out the innings puzzle for the last five weeks of the season, right-hander Javier Assad is expected to play an important role.
With his last two starts, he helped the Cubs get through a week with a doubleheader and no off day. And on Friday against the Angels, his third major-league start of the season after being sidelined for most of the year by an oblique injury, he allowed just two hits and one run in six innings.
“It’s the fastball away,” Counsell said after the game. “That’s a heavy right-handed lineup, so when he has the fastball away, it just gets that right handed hitter leaning out a little bit over the plate, and then it opens up the fastball in. And he did a great job mixed in the cutter [for] just a little different shape.”
