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Pete Crow-Armstrong’s brain fart cost the Cubs dearly.
The outfielder caught Alec Burleson’s long fly ball to center field in the fourth inning on Tuesday night and turned to jog back to the dugout — unfortunately, the out marked only the second of the inning and allowed Masyn Winn to score from second, giving the Cardinals an 8-5 lead.
Winn’s dash around the basepaths proved to be the winning run in an 8-7 Cubs loss — the team’s third straight.
“He lost track of the outs. It’s just a mistake,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters.
Crow-Armstrong’s Cubs teammates weren’t going to let the loss hang on his shoulders, either.
“He’s been so good for us this year,” starter Jameson Taillon said. “Obviously, he’s one of the best defenders in baseball. That’s just a freak thing. He takes a lot of pride in his defense, takes a lot of pride in being a great teammate, so I’m not too worried about it. I was more mad at myself for giving up the homers and giving up a lot of hard contact.
“I’m not too concerned with the eighth run I gave up. I’m concerned with all eight. I’m sure it won’t happen again. He’s been so good for us.”
The blunder comes as Crow-Armstrong continues to cool off after a torrid start to the season that had some talking up as a potential National League MVP candidate.
Crow-Armstrong is hitting .273 with 21 home runs, 61 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases through 78 games.
Most of that production came in April and May, though, as he is hitting just .259 with nine home runs, 23 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases in his last 30 games entering .
He didn’t seem like he was going to let the play snowball into something bigger, with a pretty simple plan for dealing with it.
“Go to sleep and wake up,” he said.
Despite the mistake, he has grown into one of the best players in baseball, with a WAR rating of 4.0, the third best in all of baseball behind Yankees star Aaron Judge (6.1) and Mariners’ breakout star Cal Raleigh (5.4).
The former Mets prospect was traded to the Cubs in 2021 in exchange for pitcher Trevor Williams and Javier Baez at the trade deadline.
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