Thunder and lightning: PCA becomes fastest Cubs player to reach 25-25 mark

MINNEAPOLIS -- Pete Crow-Armstrong was due for the type of outburst that arrived on Thursday afternoon. The Cubs center fielder had encountered a brief offensive lull over the previous few days, making it seem like only a matter of time before one of baseball’s most electric players put on a show.

“You’re going to have a couple days like that from time to time,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “But kind of be the guy that drives the bus the next day.”

On Thursday, Crow-Armstrong took the wheel and belted a pair of home runs to help power the Cubs to an 8-1 win over the Twins, eliciting some familiar “P-C-A!” chants from the Chicago fans on hand at Target Field. In the process, Crow-Armstrong became the fastest player in Cubs history to reach at least 25 homers and 25 steals in a season.

In fact, Crow-Armstrong -- with 25 homers and 27 stolen bases on the year -- is the fourth-fastest to a 25-25 showing in a season in MLB history, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs. Only Eric Davis (69 games in 1987), Alfonso Soriano (91 games in 2002) and Bobby Bonds (91 games in 1973) did so faster than Crow-Armstrong (92 games).

“I’ve only been humbled by the names that I’m mentioned with,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Eric Davis is about as all-around badass as a center fielder ever gets, so that’s pretty cool. But, again, we’re not even at the break.

“I’ve got three more [games] to go finish strong and make sure that we’ve got a good lead in the division and then we start thinking about fun second-half things.”

Crow-Armstrong has three more games in the Bronx against the Yankees before catching a flight to Atlanta for the 95th All-Star Game. Days like Thursday in Minneapolis show why he has captured the attention of baseball fans, who voted him into the National League’s starting lineup.

“Pete has so many different skill-sets and tools in his box,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said, “that he can continuously tap into. It’s really, really fun to watch.”

On the season, Crow-Armstrong is now hitting .271 with 21 doubles, 67 runs scored and 70 RBIs to go along with the homers and steals. His 5.1 fWAR currently leads the NL and ranks third in baseball behind only Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (5.8) and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge (7.2).

Crow-Armstrong launched a two-run homer off Twins right-hander Chris Paddack in the third inning and added a solo shot off lefty Anthony Misiewicz in the seventh, marking the Cubs outfielder’s fifth multihomer game this season. He is the first Cubs player with at least five multihomer games in one year since 2005 (Derrek Lee, eight) and the only Cubs player 23 years old or younger to achieve that feat.

Crow-Armstrong is also now just one homer shy of Kris Bryant’s single-season club record for homers by a player 23 years old or younger. Bryant set the bar with 26 homers en route to the National League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2015.

When the smoke cleared, Crow-Armstrong finished the day 3-for-4 with a walk and double added to the mix. In the ninth, he sent a grounder up the middle and into shallow right-center field. Crow-Armstrong never broke stride, hustling into second (29.2 ft/sec sprint speed, per Statcast) before center fielder Harrison Bader could get a throw in on time.

That all happened within Crow-Armstrong’s final four plate appearances, following a mini 0-for-10 slump. The young center fielder said he wants to continue to improve upon limiting how long those types of cold spells last.

“There’s growth to be had still,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Such a big part of how I want to see myself mature in the game is that -- I want to be able to shorten the hard times, because they happen a lot. That’s a big conversation I’ve had all year.”

Crow-Armstrong’s performance came within a team-wide outburst -- Nico Hoerner, Michael Busch, Matt Shaw and Swanson also drove in runs -- following two losses to the Twins with three runs scored in total. It backed a solid seven-inning outing from Colin Rea and helped Chicago avoid what would have been only its third three-game losing streak of the year.

“Good teams do that,” Counsell said of limiting the losing streaks. “Good offenses do that. And our group has been really good at that.”

Crow-Armstrong, in particular.

“You can’t get a homer every at-bat. You can’t get a hit every at-bat,” Counsell said. “But you can impact a game, and that’s what we saw today. He impacts the game in a huge way.”