Pete Crow-Armstrong Feeling No Pressure to Make Individual Mark Despite Offensive Struggles

Pete Crow-Armstrong has been mired in a prolonged slump that has lasted most of the second half, and getting to October hasn’t helped matters. He managed to bounce back from an atrocious August with a September that was passable in light of his elite defense, but Padres pitching has been a puzzle he can’t solve. A lowlight reel of his worst swings of the season would feature at least three hacks from the last two games in which he’s gone 0-for-6 with five strikeouts.

The young outfielder has as much swagger as anyone, but it’s hard to look cool when you’re being sworded once or twice every time up there. And the thing about the struggles is that you know PCA knows he’s better, but it’s as though he’s been stuck inside the labyrinth of his own mind and can’t find the way out.

I haven’t been at my best, I know that,” he wrote in a recent Players’ Tribune essay. “And it weighs on me. I can’t lie about that. And I just get thinking like, If I’m not me in the batter’s box … then who am I?”

He may have to be Hercules in order to cast off the collective expectation that has almost visibly weighed him down. It’s as though the pressure is a fist tightening on him mentally and physically, prompting poor decisions and uncertain actions. Though he will tell you otherwise, at least publicly, something is holding PCA back.

“Zero. The confidence is in the same exact place it’s been all year,” he told reporters when asked about concerns about his offense. “I don’t think that’s what I show up here to do, is make my individual mark. My job is — and again, I’ve said this so much this year, so I hope everybody takes that with them — that I love playing center field. And right now, that’s my job…

“I feel no pressure about making my individual mark, only because my goal is just to play as long into October and then hopefully early November as I can.”

Crow-Armstrong’s struggles would not be as evident if the Cubs were hitting well otherwise, but they were just shut out and now face elimination. Even their win did little to inspire confidence in the lineup, though I don’t want to downplay the importance of blasting a pair of homers on Tuesday. The Cubs have only walked twice so far, and both of those were of the intentional variety.

They had three-ball counts 10 times on Wednesday, four of which were 3-1, yet they went 0-for-10 with six strikeouts in those situations. PCA accounted for two of those 10, striking out in a full count against Dylan Cease and after starting 3-1 against Mason Miller. The Cubs worked three balls only three times in Tuesday’s win, and all of those ended up in strikeouts.

I don’t know about you, but going 0-for-13 with nine strikeouts in three-ball counts is uncannily bad. While this isn’t a viable option, it’s not even an exaggeration to say they’d have been better off not swinging at all after getting ahead 3-1 or facing a full count. Better yet, they need to go to the plate with targeted aggressiveness. All but two of their hits have come in the first three pitches of an at-bat, though both homers came on the fourth and sixth pitches, respectively.

When you’re pressing, the advantage goes further in your opponent’s favor the deeper you get in the count. And when you’ve got guys like Cease and Miller mixing elite fastballs with disgusting sliders to get hitters guessing, that leverage is ratcheted up further. For PCA, it’s been like bringing a dagger to a sword fight. But as ugly as the results have been so far, there’s still time to rewrite the narrative in Thursday’s decisive contest.

One swing — ideally a much less awkward effort than we’ve seen for the most part — could change the course of the series. Whether that comes from Crow-Armstrong or any one of a number of other would-be heroes, the Cubs need someone to force the action. Ian Happ is 0-for-8 with five strikeouts; Kyle Tucker is 1-for-7 with a single and two strikeouts. As a team, they’ve struck out 24 times with 10 hits and no unintentional walks.

Even though 19 of those Ks were of the swinging variety, I still say being aggressive early against Yu Darvish and whoever else the Padres throw out there on Tuesday is the way to go. That said, the Cubs have to find a way to get men on base however they can. Walks, bunts, whatever. I don’t think anyone would be opposed to launching a few multi-run homers, either.