Pete Crow-Armstrong Led Off With a Homer and Ended It With One

Nobody had done this in 16 years. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit the first pitch he saw Monday night out of Wrigley Field, then hit a two-run walk-off homer in the 10th to beat the White Sox 7-5. He's the first player since 2010 to hit a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer in the same game, and the first Cub to ever do it. Somewhere in the middle of all that, he also singled, doubled and walked. Then the second homer pushed him to 30 on the year, which paired with 31 steals gives him back-to-back 30-30 seasons at age 24. No Cub in franchise history had done that. No Cub had ever put up multiple 30-homer seasons before turning 25 either. The MVP Race Just Got Real Here's the part bettors should care about. Crow-Armstrong's OPS is now .929. That's second in the National League. First place belongs to Shohei Ohtani at .948, and Ohtani also went deep twice on Monday, which tells you exactly how this race is going to go for the next six weeks. The case for Crow-Armstrong is not just the bat. He's widely regarded as the best defensive center fielder in baseball, he's stealing bases at a high clip, and his walk rate has climbed sharply since the middle of June. Voters have historically rewarded the loud offensive number, and Ohtani has that. But a 30-30 season with elite defense on a 73-53 first-place team is the kind of profile that gains momentum in September, especially if the Cubs keep winning the division. If you're shopping NL MVP futures, the math is simple. Ohtani will be short. Crow-Armstrong will not be. That gap is where the value lives, and it usually tightens as the narrative builds. Waiting until the last week of September to take a position on a player like this is how you end up paying full price. What the Cubs Are Actually Building Chicago sits at 73-53 and just took a wild one from their crosstown rivals with five lead changes. Craig Counsell called it maybe the best game Crow-Armstrong has played in the majors. Jacob Webb worked out of a jam in the top of the 10th to earn the win, and Will Venable declined to walk Crow-Armstrong with first base open because Seiya Suzuki was on deck. That's the sign of a lineup that has finally stopped being a one-man show. The complication is Dansby Swanson, who is out at least four weeks with an oblique strain. That matters for team totals and run lines over the next month. Swanson's absence thins the middle infield defense and takes a real bat out of the order. If you've been betting Cubs overs on the strength of the full lineup, adjust the model. There's also a Cubs and White Sox World Series scenario floating around, which would be the first since 1906. It's a long shot and it should be priced like one. But the Cubs half of that ticket is legitimate. SBA Takeaway Crow-Armstrong is the most interesting futures position in baseball right now, because the market prices MVP awards on reputation and he's still building his. The Cubs are a real team with a real division lead, and the player driving it just had the loudest night of his career. Watch the Swanson injury before you touch Cubs team totals, and treat NL MVP as a two-horse market that has not fully repriced yet. Related Reading - Alex Bregman Hit Three Homers for the First Time in 11 Years - The Brewers Just Passed the Dodgers, and Now They Play Four Games in LA - Joshua Baez Homered in His First Three Major League At-Bats