Pete Crow-Armstrong didn’t try to dress it up after the Chicago Cubs were swept by the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card series. The 24-year-old knew the bat never got going, and he said as much after a frustrating finish for a team that entered October hoping to make some noise.
The Cubs were held in check on both sides of the ball throughout the series, but the offense was the biggest problem. Chicago’s bats went quiet when it mattered most, and Crow-Armstrong was part of that shutdown. He finished 0-for-7 with four strikeouts and only reached base once, then added a stolen base after that walk.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Crow-Armstrong didn’t hide from the performance. “We were challenged this year,” Crow-Armstrong said, per The Athletic.
“This team showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight through all the challenges. But I would say, to start: I show up.
I show up when it matters in these games. That would help us immediately.
But that’s all I got right now.”
He added, “You can look at the scoreboard, you can look at the stat sheet, wherever you get your numbers from, and it is clear to see that I didn’t contribute.”
That kind of blunt self-assessment has long been part of Crow-Armstrong’s makeup. He’s not the sort to dodge responsibility, and this series gave him plenty to answer for. It stands in sharp contrast to what he did during the regular season, when he finished with 45 home runs and a .943 OPS.
But none of that carried over into the postseason, and this series will sit with him for the rest of the offseason.
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