By LUKE DeCOCK Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong put his name in the Chicago Cubs’ record book next to Hall of Fame slugger Hack Wilson — and then nearly ruined the celebration at Wrigley Field.
Crow-Armstrong completed the first cycle by a major leaguer this season with a seventh-inning single Monday night, then was promptly picked off first base by Colorado Rockies reliever Brennan Bernardino in a one-run game.
“My excitement was a little short-lived,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell quipped after his team scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 win.
Crow-Armstrong, who was a single short of the cycle Saturday in San Francisco, hit a leadoff home run in the first inning, tripled off the wall on almost the same trajectory in the third and doubled down the right-field line in the fifth.
When he came up again to lead off the seventh, the 24-year-old said he was more prepared for the moment than he might have been earlier in his career, or even earlier this season.
“Earlier, it probably made me a little nervous,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I felt like I ‘had to’ instead of ‘I get to’ hit in this really cool moment with this crowd of 40,000 pulling for me. I think I’m learning to use that to my advantage instead of me shaking in my boots when I’m up there and wanting to get the job done so badly. It’s also a regular thing at Wrigley. That happens a lot.”
With both Crow-Armstrong and the crowd fully aware of what was at stake, Crow-Armstrong lined a 1-1 fastball from Bernardino to right to finish the 13th cycle in Cubs history and only the second since 1993.
Just two Cubs center fielders have hit for the cycle since 1901: Crow-Armstrong on Monday and Wilson on June 23, 1930.
Crow-Armstrong was asked what that sort of history means to him.
“I know it’s a rare feat,” he said. “It’s hard to answer questions like those when the game just ended and I’m processing a lot. Maybe I’ll have a better answer tomorrow.”
Crow-Armstrong also added a key sacrifice fly in the eighth to cut the Rockies’ lead to 4-3.
“I absolutely put up great at-bats tonight and I’m proud of the production that I’ve helped have over the past few weeks,” he said. “But you saw it tonight: The game’s not over until it’s over. I did everything I could to help the team. But I also had a real lapse in focus and that really could have hurt us tonight. That’s what I’m talking about. Not going to dwell on that. Something so simple as someone gets in your ear and says that can’t ever happen again, and it can’t ever happen again.”
Crow-Armstrong has a 19-game on-base streak dating to May 26, hitting safely in 18 of those games. He’s batting .402 with seven doubles, three triples, seven home runs and 12 RBIs during that span.
“Watching him every day, he’s a player who overcomes your imagination,” Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga said through an interpreter.
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