ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 For months, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker staged their own MVP campaigns, expanding the possibilities for the Chicago Cubs with their electrifying performances. The 162-game schedule, though, is relentless. As the summer wore on, the Cubs dropped out of first place while both of those stars gradually dimmed.<\/p>\n
A lesser version of this team is simply not built for October. A successful playoff run requires Crow-Armstrong and Tucker to snap out of these funks and give the lineup more juice. That reality made two big swings in Friday night\u2019s 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels particularly meaningful.<\/p>\n
You could tell by the reaction from Cubs manager Craig Counsell, the upbeat energy in Angel Stadium\u2019s visiting clubhouse and the blunt assessment given by Crow-Armstrong after blasting Kenley Jansen\u2019s cutter into the right-field seats for the go-ahead homer in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about time I stepped up in a situation like that,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Crow-Armstrong had not hit a home run since July 23, which would have been a bigger story if not for the Tucker saga. It had gotten to a point where Counsell sort of joked that assistant hitting coach John Mallee was on the bench \u201calmost praying for Pete\u201d in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t played my part, up to this point, since the (All-Star) break,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a feeling to build off.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes earlier and a few lockers over, Tucker had shrugged off his first home run since July 19. \u201cIt was cool,\u201d he said. \u201cHaven\u2019t done that in a while.\u201d That lack of emotion is one of Tucker\u2019s strengths as a hitter \u2014 and an interesting foil to Crow-Armstrong\u2019s passion \u2014 but things were spiraling out of his control.<\/p>\n
After hearing the boos at Wrigley Field and watching the bad body language, Counsell decided to bench Tucker for a mental reset earlier this week. Then an ESPN report surfaced that Tucker was playing through a hairline fracture in his right hand, which the Cubs quickly confirmed after previously insisting everything was fine.<\/p>\n
Tucker launching that home run off Angels lefty Tyler Anderson in Friday\u2019s first inning could be the turning point that locks in his mechanics again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how tomorrow goes, and the next day and the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker\u2019s calm, steady attitude is part of what Counsell has described as an ideal makeup for a hitter. Then again, Tucker has never really struggled to this extent before. But this is still someone who was once a top-five draft pick, a top-10 prospect in the entire sport and a World Series champion with the Houston Astros. He\u2019s been an All-Star four years running.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny guy with a track record like that, you\u2019re always just kind of waiting for that one swing from him,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cHe\u2019s been battling whatever he\u2019s been battling. But he hasn\u2019t made that the thing. All he\u2019s done is come in and work and play a good right field and deal with the Wrigley sun and the Wrigley wind. It\u2019s been blowing in his face when he\u2019s been hitting. We play at a hard place. I think that just wears and tears, sometimes, when you know that your chances of putting a ball in the air and having a good outcome aren\u2019t always the greatest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has shown me how to stay the course, as a ton of others have. But he was also the last person to come up and pat me on the butt before I went up for my last at-bat. That kind of gives me chills there. I\u2019ve never been worried about Kyle. It\u2019s just nice that the anticipation of that one swing was kind of there, so I felt a little bit freed up for him. That honestly probably contributed to me taking my fourth at-bat after not really doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the offense slumping and the Milwaukee Brewers taking control of the National League Central race, Counsell has occasionally sounded annoyed by the line of questioning from the media. Things aren\u2019t that bad, Counsell insisted. It\u2019s just that the Cubs didn\u2019t keep pace with Milwaukee\u2019s unbelievable 14-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
The Cubs remain solidly in the wild-card picture. Their pitching staff continues to exceed expectations and find solutions. Everything changes when Crow-Armstrong and Tucker are on top of their games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose guys kind of gave outsize contributions for a whole bunch of the season,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cTheir contributions were both like \u2018wow\u2019 contributions. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve been a good offense. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve been an exceptional offense. And they\u2019ll contribute because they\u2019re really good offensive players. It makes the room feel good. We need those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: John McCoy \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 For months, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker staged their own MVP campaigns, expanding the possibilities…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1271,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-169820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago-cubs","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115079585779685840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}