Pete Crow-Armstrong’s breakout season continues to look more impressive by the day. The third-year star hit his 24th and 25th home runs of the year in the Chicago Cubs’ 8-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.
With that 25th homer, Crow-Armstrong became the third player in MLB history to reach 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases before the MLB All-Star break. He joins Bobby Bonds and Eric Davis as the only others to achieve that feat before the season’s unofficial halfway point.
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Crow-Armstrong reached that mark in 92 games. Davis got to 25-25 in 69 games during the 1987 season (and had 27 homers and 33 steals in 74 games by the All-Star break), while Bonds did so in 91 games in 1973 (and was at 25 homers and 28 steals in 97 games), according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
(Alfonso Soriano also got to 25-25 in 91 games in 2002, but had 20 homers and 23 steals at the All-Star break that season.)
Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s first 50-50 batter, must have been at 25-25 by the All-Star break, right? Almost, but not quite. He had 26 homers at the halfway point, but 23 stolen bases.
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Crow-Armstrong first went deep with a two-run shot off Chris Paddack in the third inning, crushing a 93.5 mph fastball left out over the plate to center field. After walking in the fifth, the Cubs center fielder led off the seventh by lifting an Anthony Misiewicz curveball in the middle of the strike zone to the right-center field seats.
Including Thursday’s two-home run performance, Crow-Armstrong has had five multi-homer games this season. He’s more than doubled the 10 home runs he hit last year in his first full season as a major leaguer. (And Crow-Armstrong will almost certainly surpass the 123 games and 410 plate appearances he totaled last season.)
Adding a double in the ninth, Crow-Armstrong finished 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBI. He is batting .271/,309/.560 with 25 homers, 67 RBI and 27 steals with three more games for the Cubs to play before the All-Star break, finishing with a weekend series at the New York Yankees.
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His 25 homers are tied for sixth in MLB with teammate Seiya Suzuki, his 70 RBI ranked seventh and his 27 steals are the third-most in the league.
Crow-Armstrong will start his first MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, elected to the lineup by fans.
