Pete Crow-Armstrong catches everything.
Anthony Rizzo can’t even reel in a home-run ball while holding a kid in the Wrigley Field bleachers.
Michael Busch hit a homer into the bleachers …
Anthony Rizzo got the ball! pic.twitter.com/oVp6EF54AE
— MLB (@MLB) July 18, 2026
All jokes aside — Rizzo was a Platinum Glove winner, after all — there is one thing manager Craig Counsell has noticed about his center fielder’s play this season that has him remembering the Cubs’ champion first baseman.
“One of the things he did is he moved up on the plate,” Counsell said while ruminating on Crow-Armstrong’s improved plate discipline and walk numbers. “I kind of equate that to Anthony Rizzo. Anthony Rizzo, at one point in his career, moved up on the plate, and then for most of his career, he was right on top of the plate, against left-handed pitching especially.
“It helped [Crow-Armstrong] better define the strike zone.”
Crow-Armstrong’s improved on-base ability has been the talk of his MVP-caliber campaign to this point, a night-and-day difference from his breakout season a year ago. He started Wednesday with a .384 on-base percentage that ranked 13th in baseball.
After walking three times in Tuesday’s win, Crow-Armstrong was up to 52 walks on the season, in 101 games, a massive jump from the 29 walks he drew in 157 games last season.
“He’s a player that can impact winning in so many different ways,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said of Crow-Armstrong. “He doesn’t have to hit a home run to be the best player on the field that day. But he also can hit home runs and do that. He’s been amazing.”
Crow-Armstrong’s walk rate has made an enormous leap from 4.5 percent last season to 11.8 percent this year. Rizzo was a prolific walker, too, with an 11-percent walk rate in his 10 seasons as a Cub, topping out at 13.2 percent in 2014.
“The rate at which it’s improved and how fast it’s improved, I don’t have any comparisons for it,” Counsell said. “I don’t have any explanations for it. It’s a great athlete coming into his own as a great player.
“This is a young, great athlete getting more experience, and it’s that take-off that you hope you see.”
Reunited, will it feel so good?
Aaron Civale is back with the Cubs after a weekend trade with the A’s, reuniting the righty pitcher with the team he pitched for during the postseason last year.
Civale, who put up a 2.08 ERA in five regular-season relief appearances, logged 4 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLDS.
He’s a Cub once more as the team continues to seek aid for an injury-ravaged pitching staff, hoping he can deliver the types of results he did last year and not the 5.42 ERA he had with the A’s.
“It feels good to be back, it doesn’t feel like too long ago,” Civale said Wednesday. “We’re trying out a few new things, locations on the mound. We’re just trying to get things back feeling good and making sure that I’m out there competing the best that I can. I’m just trying to learn from each thing.”
Civale pitched 2⅓ innings in relief Tuesday, giving up two runs on four hits and a couple walks.
Sluggin’ Seiya
Right fielder Seiya Suzuki extended his on-base streak to 11 games with his first-inning homer Wednesday night.
In the previous 10 contests, he owned a .351 batting average and a 1.181 OPS.
