Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong hasn’t had the best season so far, but he had an epic moment in Saturday’s win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Naturally, the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry brings the heat in terms of fan animosity, and Cards fans were giving Crow-Armstrong a hard time during the game, chanting “OVERRATED” at the Cubs star.
Things came to a head in the eighth inning of the contest when Crow-Armstrong came up to the plate with the Cubs holding onto a 3-1 lead.
With a large group of fans participating in the “tarps off” trend, swirling their shirts over their heads in the right field bleachers, and the chants of “overrated” going around the stadium, Crow-Armstrong absolutely destroyed a pitch and sent it flying into the midst of the shirtless crowd, a 444-foot shot that extended the Cubs’ lead to three runs.
Apparently, PCA was pretty motivated by the chants. According to Statcast, the ball came off of Crow-Armstrong’s bat at 114.6 miles per hour, the hardest ball he’s hit for a home run in his MLB career.
It was a banner day for Crow-Armstrong at the plate, as he went 4-for-5 with a home run and a pair of RBI’s, knocking in an RBI single in the ninth inning of the game for good measure.
He then capped off the game with a wild sliding catch to give the Cubs the 6-1 victory, their third win in their last four games.
The Cubs will try to take the rubber match of their series with the Cardinals on Sunday night when they tangle again at Busch Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:20 p.m., and you can catch all the action on NBC Chicago.
