Pete Crow-Armstrong hit three home runs on August 29, 2026, at Wrigley Field — the first three-homer game of his career — and led the Cubs to a 17-5 blowout of the Reds. The performance pushed his season total to 36 home runs, drove in six runs, and lifted his WAR to 9.1, placing him fifth in Cubs franchise history for a single season. Only Rogers Hornsby, Sammy Sosa, Ernie Banks, and Ron Santo have posted a higher single-season WAR in a Chicago uniform. PCA is 24 years old.
Three Home Runs, Three Arguments
The first came in the opening inning: a solo shot, 435 feet to right-center. The second landed in the second inning with two runners on base. The third — the one that brought Wrigley to its feet — came in the seventh against Reds reliever Tony Santillan: a three-run blast that triggered a standing ovation and sent the crowd chanting MVP as PCA rounded the bases.
In the eighth, with the score already 17-5, he had a legitimate shot at a fourth home run. Instead he rolled over to second base against catcher José Treviño, who had been sent to the mound because the game had long since been decided. The fourth didn’t come. But three home runs and six RBI is more than enough to own a box score.
Kevin Gausman picked up the win (8-11) and Andrew Abbott took the loss (6-10), giving up seven runs in three innings. The game, though, belongs to Crow-Armstrong’s line.
Where 9.1 WAR Sits in Cubs History
A 9.1 WAR in a single season doesn’t show up often in the record books for Chicago. Only four individual seasons by a Cubs player top that mark:
- Rogers Hornsby — 11.0 WAR (1929)
- Sammy Sosa — 9.9 WAR (2001)
- Ernie Banks — 9.7 WAR (1959)
- Ron Santo — 9.5 WAR (1967)
PCA is now fifth on that list. And the symbolic weight of the day wasn’t lost on anyone: Sosa — the man who hit 60 home runs in 1998 and 63 in 1999 — was sitting in the Wrigley stands watching a 24-year-old center fielder hit three in an afternoon.
The Cubs also improved to 7-2 against Cincinnati this season and snapped a three-game losing streak in the process.
The MVP Race: PCA vs. Ohtani, Game by Game
MLB.com’s fifth NL MVP straw poll of 2026 placed Crow-Armstrong first: 177 points and 29 first-place votes out of 37 experts surveyed. Shohei Ohtani remains the biggest name in the conversation, but he hasn’t pitched since July 3 due to left knee and right biceps discomfort. Since that date, PCA leads him in wRC+ (171 vs. 149), home runs (14 vs. 12), and OPS (1.014 vs. .948).
Without the mound, Ohtani loses his most powerful argument: the two-way elite status that made his candidacy almost impossible to challenge. The race isn’t over — PCA’s xwOBA for the full season still trails Ohtani’s, and some analysts point to potential regression in his contact numbers. But what happened on August 29 at Wrigley doesn’t help anyone build a case against him.
The Numbers Behind the Name
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 2026 Statcast profile through this game:
- 602 plate appearances
- 36 home runs, 89 RBI
- AVG: .277
- OPS: .922
- xwOBA: .358
- Average exit velocity: 90.1 mph
- Barrel rate: 12.2%
- Hard-hit rate: 48.5%
- Average bat speed: 74.8 mph
How those numbers rank across MLB:
- xwOBA: 88th percentile
- Bat speed: 80th percentile
- Barrel %: 79th percentile
- Hard-hit %: 88th percentile
- Sprint speed: 96th percentile (elite)
Three home runs. Six RBI. A 9.1 WAR that puts him in the same sentence as Hornsby, Sosa, Banks, and Santo. The MVP chants at Wrigley aren’t premature anymore — they’re just accurate.
