For Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs‘ star center fielder, the playoffs had a special highlight–Game 3 of the wild-card series against the Padres, in which he went 3-for-4 and keyed a two-run second inning with an RBI that powered the team to a clinching 3-1 win.
The other four games the Cubs have played this postseason, though, have not been quite so productive. In fact, PCA is batting just .222 in this playoffs, and worse, has 10 strikeouts in 18 at-bats. He’s gone 1-for-8 in the Cubs’ two losses to the Brewers, with four strikeouts, emblematic of the Cubs’ struggles in this series.
His frustration has shown. It has shown for all the Cubs, who were 7-6 against the Brewers in the regular season but have been outclassed by them so far here in October.
Pete Crow-Armstrong: ‘There’s Been a Lot of Strikeouts’
Crow-Armstrong was terse with reporters after the team’s previous loss tot he Brewers.
“There’s been a lot of strikeouts,” he said. “They’re also playing good baseball. So, we played—how many games did we play against them this year? That’s 15 games, I don’t think the matchup’s any different.”
Crow-Armstrong said he holds out hope that the Cubs can rally at Wrigley Field in Games 3 and 4, and said the challenge for the team is to not try to do too much to pull themselves back into the series.
“We’re together already,” he said. “There’s no question about that. So I think the goal is to not try to change anything or do anything extra, but just play the baseball we have been playing and everything is going to be just fine.”
Cubs’ Craig Counsell Hoping for Learning Moments
Manager Craig Counsell said he understands that Crow-Armstrong is emotional, and that with the playoffs in full swing, those emotions take center stage even more.
“I think we’d all consider Pete a pretty emotional player, and I think we’d all say that October ramps that up even more,” Counsell said on Tuesday. “Those are great lessons for, I think, a player to learn is kind of what it does to you, and you learn about how it helps you.
“I think Pete is still learning how emotion really helps him, how does it hurt me sometimes? I think moments where it’s heightened, even better teacher, even a better teacher for things like that. I think Pete is — everybody goes through that, too. Pete is not, like, unique to that. Everybody goes through it. And they’re learning experiences, and they’re great learning experiences for sure.”
Cubs Need to Put Up More Runs
He also accepted his share of the blame for how the offense has sputtered in two games vs. Milwaukee thus far. It does not help that the Brewers are hitting .343 off Cubs pitching, but the Cubs are batting just .156 with 23 strikeouts themselves.
“Putting runs up in big-league games is hard,” PCA said. “This sport that we play is hard. It’s not a surprise that they’re going out there throwing their best arms and all those guys seem to be locked in. It’s just our job to execute.
“I know I haven’t done that, so, I mean—it’s a pretty simple idea here. We go, put more balls in play, and we’ll score more runs.”
https://heavy.com/sports/mlb/milwaukee-brewers/
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Cubs’ Crow-Armstrong Dealing With Emotions Amid Struggles appeared first on Heavy Sports.