The Cubs didn’t just hold their own against the Dodgers this week. They ran the table.
Chicago opened the series with a 10-5 win, then took care of business again Tuesday before surviving a late scare Wednesday to complete the sweep. Against a Los Angeles team loaded with names and expectations, the Cubs looked every bit like a club trying to make a real October statement.
At the center of it all was Pete Crow-Armstrong, who kept forcing the MVP conversation into the spotlight. He’s already made Cubs history this season, but Wednesday gave him another case for the top spot in the race. Shohei Ohtani opened the game with a homer, and Crow-Armstrong answered immediately in the bottom of the first by sending the first pitch he saw from Eric Lauer 420 feet to straight center.
He wasn’t done there. In the next inning, with Dansby Swanson on third, Crow-Armstrong ripped an RBI double down the right field line to push Chicago ahead 3-1. Then came the big swing: a two-run shot to right field in his next trip, a 405-foot blast that cleared Kyle Tucker and made it 5-1.
Ohtani still put together a monster night of his own, finishing with three hits and two homers. But across the full three-game set, Crow-Armstrong came out on top. He finished the sweep with six hits, five RBIs, five runs scored, and two home runs.
That production has him rolling right now. Crow-Armstrong owns a .941 OPS over his five games in August, and Wednesday’s homer also made him the first player in Cubs history to post 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases in consecutive seasons, per Jesse Rogers. He now has the second-most home runs in Cubs history before turning 25, trailing only Ron Santo.
“I think it’s fun watching Pete have this season," Craig Counsell said after the game. "It’s a season you remember.
You remember watching seasons like this. You cherish seasons like this from individual players, you just do.
That’s the best part.”
The sweep also highlighted something else for Chicago: the rotation may be trending up at just the right time.
The Cubs addressed starting pitching at the trade deadline by adding Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, and both are expected to make their Cubs debuts this weekend. But the improvement from the pitchers already in house matters too, especially Shota Imanaga.
Imanaga looked much more like himself against the Dodgers, even while giving up eight hits in the finale. He limited the damage to one run over 5.0 innings, and Ohtani tagged him for the lone blemish with a leadoff homer. Imanaga struck out six and lowered his ERA to 3.60, a sharp turnaround from the 4.74 mark he carried in early June.
Nico Hoerner has also found his rhythm again after a mid-season slump. The contact hitter stayed locked in Wednesday with three hits and an RBI, one game after collecting two hits and five total bases.
He has homered in each of the last two series and now has seven on the year, matching his totals from 2025 and 2024. His career high remains 10, set in 2022.
Since the All-Star break, Hoerner’s .389 batting average ranks fourth among players with at least 17 games played, behind only Freddie Freeman, Chandler Simpson, and Yordan Alvarez.
In Other News...
Pete Crow-Armstrong Just Gave Cubs Fans A Wild New Debate
Pete Crow-Armstrong managed to spark a conversation far beyond the Cubs' center field this week when he floated a wild, offbeat theory on a podcast. The Chicago outfielder, drawing from a similar idea mentioned by Mariners pitcher Tayler Saucedo, mused that Babe Ruth may never have existed, a comment that instantly pushed a familiar baseball legend into the middle of an unfamiliar debate.
For Cubs fans, it was the kind of strange aside that travels fast because it is so far outside the usual postgame noise. Ruth is one of the most documented figures in the sports history, with a legacy that has been built in plain view for generations, which is why the theory remains firmly in the fringe category even after Crow-Armstrong gave it new life. [Read more 🡒]
Cubs Just Sent A Clear Message About Their Catching Future
Moises Ballesteros was once one of the more intriguing names in the Cubs catching picture, but his path changed quickly after a strong start to the season gave way to a rough stretch at the plate and a demotion to Triple-A. Chicagos latest move only sharpened the focus on where the organization thinks its backstop depth is headed, especially with Carson Kelly set to reach free agency and the club weighing its next step behind the plate.
For now, the Cubs appear more inclined to look inward than to preserve every upper-level catching piece, with Miguel Amaya still part of the conversation and Owen Ayers increasingly viewed as part of the next wave. The trade that brought back reliever Ryan Zeferjahn says as much about the front offices priorities as it does about Ballesteros season, even if the long-term catching plan still has a few moving parts. [Read more 🡒]
Freddie Freeman's Cubs Exit Just Added To A Dangerous Dodgers Problem
Freddie Freemans night against the Cubs took an uneasy turn in the bottom of the fifth when the Dodgers first baseman came out of the game after appearing to bother his wrist on a check swing. Freeman had already extended his hitting streak to 15 games and entered the night batting .310, so even a brief exit carried more weight than the usual in-game shuffle.
Los Angeles turned to Kik Hernndez at first base, leaving the Dodgers to manage the rest of the matchup without one of their most reliable bats. For a team already watching its margin for error shrink, any issue involving Freeman is the kind of development that can linger beyond a single at-bat. [Read more 🡒]