Pete Crow-Armstrong is having a June that sounds made up. The Cubs outfielder hit .381 for the month with 11 home runs, 17 walks, eight stolen bases, 82 total bases, and a .781 slugging percentage. That kind of production puts him in some absurdly rare company.
According to OptaSTATS, Crow-Armstrong is one of just three players in MLB history to post a month with a .375-plus batting average, .775-plus slugging percentage, 80-plus total bases, 15-plus walks, 10-plus home runs, and five-plus stolen bases. The other two guys are Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Ruth did it three times across 1920 and 1930. Gehrig did it once in June 1930. That’s it.
Now, nobody is saying PCA is about to rattle off a 54-homer season like Ruth did in 1920 or drive in 173 runs like Gehrig in 1930. But the fact that a 22-year-old former top prospect is even sharing a stat line with those two Hall of Famers tells you something about how far he’s come. Entering this season, Crow-Armstrong had more questions than answers at the plate. He wasn’t exactly mashing in his first taste of the majors last year. But this June was a different story entirely.
He leads the Cubs in batting average, home runs, and OPS this season. Overall, Crow-Armstrong is hitting .284 with 18 homers, 46 RBIs, and a .888 OPS. Those are solid numbers, but the month he just had suggests there might be more in there. The league has taken notice, and naturally the hype machine started spinning. Some fans wondered if he might get an invite to the Home Run Derby after popping 11 dingers in one month. That’s not happening, according to reports. The Cubs aren’t sending him, and Crow-Armstrong hasn’t made any noise about wanting to go. Probably smart. He’s young, and the Derby can mess with a swing.
But here’s the thing that matters more than any one-month stat line: the Cubs need him to keep this up. Chicago sits at 48-38, which is good but not great. They’re 5.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, and every win counts. Crow-Armstrong has been their best hitter this season, and if the Cubs want to make a real push, they can’t afford him to cool off now. They just finished a series with the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. Next up is a stretch where every game feels heavier.
Nobody’s penciling PCA into Cooperstown after one hot month. But for June at least, he was in the same sentence as Ruth and Gehrig. That’s not nothing.
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