The baseball gods did not wait long to test Pete Crow-Armstrong and his heralded Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field.
Three batters into the bottom of the first inning in his first big-league start, Crow-Armstrong showed why the Chicago Cubs wanted him roaming the spacious outfield at Coors Field. Crow-Armstrong ran down a 107.1 mph rocket off Nolan Jones’ bat to make a leaping catch, robbing him of extra bases off the wall. The ball had a .970 expected batting average that instead became the second out of the inning.
Loud chants of “PCA! PCA!” reverberated after the catch throughout the ballpark where Crow-Armstrong’s parents, a couple of his former high school baseball coaches at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, his trainer and about seven of his close friends were among the 32,058 fans.
Crow-Armstrong again showed off his speed and route efficiency in the sixth. Another Jones liner was headed for extra bases in the right-center gap when Crow-Armstrong made a perfectly timed sliding catch to take away a hit.
His highlight reel catches were among the few bright spots in a messy 6-4 Cubs loss to the Rockies.
“I have dreamed about — literally dreamed about — making those catches and tried to picture what it’d feel like and I’d say that exceeds what I thought,” said Crow-Armstrong, who went 0-for-4 and recorded his first RBI. “But that’s just the preparation I’ve done and the work I’ve put in. I expect to make those plays, regardless of the game. … I don’t think there’s ever a point where I didn’t think it was going to get there.
“Both were fun to make, but I’m having a hard time getting past the loss. I’ll make those plays every chance I get, but I also want to produce every chance I get.”
Right-hander Javier Assad lasted just 3 1/3 innings as he landed only 40 of his 79 pitches for strikes. It caught up to him in a four-run fourth when the Rockies’ Nos. 7-9 batters all reached to begin the inning to give Colorado some momentum. Kris Bryant’s checked swing turned into a bloop two-run game-tying single to right field with the bases loaded. A ground out and RBI single put the Rockies ahead 4-2.
The Cubs (78-68) battled back to tie it, however, Bryant’s solo home run in the sixth, his first homer against his former team, gave Colorado a one-run lead they didn’t relinquish.
“We could have done a lot of things better,” manager David Ross said. “Our signature is getting good starting pitching and we didn’t get that from Assad tonight.
“He kind of lost command a little bit there. Could have done some things better defensively … made too many outs on the bases.”
The Cubs’ three base running misplays stemmed from trying to take an extra base. Cody Bellinger was thrown out at second to end the first in his effort to stretch out a double rather than set up Dansby Swanson with runners on the corners. Swanson led off the next inning with a triple. Crow-Armstrong’s attempt to take second on a ball in the dirt in was a gamble that backfired. Rockies catcher Elias Díaz, who threw him out Monday in his big-league debut, quickly snatched the ball near his feet and easily nailed Crow-Armstrong.
With the Cubs trailing by two runs in the fifth, Nick Madrigal tried to leg out a triple on a ball to right field but instead made the first out of the inning at third. The Cubs challenged the play, but the call was confirmed. Madrigal likely would have scored had he settled for a double when two batters later Ian Happ connected for a single.
The Cubs’ 57 Outs on Base (OOB) are second most in the majors behind the Cincinnati Reds (63) while the league average is 42.
Asked whether the base running snafus Tuesday night were the result of players trying to do too much or over-aggressiveness, Ross only said, “They’re just outs on the bases.”
Seiya Suzuki tied the game in the sixth with his opposite-field, two-run home run after the Rockies went to the bullpen.
Of the 17 home runs Suzuki has hit this year, eight have come since Aug. 9 when he returned from his brief benching for a mental reset. In his last 32 games including Tuesday, Suzuki is slashing .353/.411/.723 while his 1.7 fWAR in that span is tied for sixth-best among major-league hitters.
“I think those long stretches of where I’m kind of slumping, I don’t really have that anymore,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “I’ve been able to get out of those phases pretty quick so in that sense, I’m feeling pretty good.”
()
