Pete Crow-Armstrong's month-long molten hot streak continued Tuesday night with a three-run homer run against the New York Mets (CHC 9, NYM 6), the team that originally drafted him. Crow-Armstrong went 1 for 3 with the home run and two walks in the game, and is hitting .410/.474/.850 with 11 home runs in his last 24 games. He leads all position players with 4.8 WAR.
"His production has been just excellent," Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell said about Crow-Armstrong recently (via MLB.com). "His production has taken a big step forward and that's meaningful for us."
There was a confusing but ultimately not controversial moment in Tuesday's win. With one out in the seventh inning, Crow-Armstrong took off from first base with Michael Busch in a 3-2 count. Busch took ball four, but Crow-Armstrong had his head down and slid into second base as though it was a steal attempt, even though Busch's walk entitled him to advance to second.
Bo Bichette applied the tag on the would-be stolen base attempt, and, after the Mets challenged the play, Crow-Armstrong was ruled out. Counsell was ejected and Crow-Armstrong had to be led off the field when attempting to argue with the umpires. Here's the play:
"Umpires interpret rules correctly. They don't get that stuff wrong," Counsell admitted after the game (via the Associated Press). "It's a bad rule. It's a terrible rule. I mean, I don't know what else to say. Like, not a good rule."
The out call was, in fact, correct. Busch's walk did entitle Crow-Armstrong to second base, but he disconnected from the bag on his slide, and was tagged out. The walk entitles you to one base and the ball is not dead on a walk. Crow-Armstrong touched the bag initially on the slide. Once he disconnected, though, even inadvertently, he was eligible to be tagged out, and he was.
Is it a "terrible rule," as Counsell said? Eh, I don't think so. I don't like these ticky-tack "he came off the bag for a split second" replays -- those really aren't in the spirit of why replay was adopted -- but the rule is the rule. You get to advance one base on a walk, but you have to maintain contact with the base once you're there, otherwise you can be tagged out.
The play did not change the outcome of Tuesday's game. The Cubs led 7-2 at the time and held on to win 9-6. They are 41-37 and tied with the San Diego Padres for the third wild-card spot. The Mets, meanwhile, have lost three straight and are 34-44 on the season. They're seven games out of a postseason spot.
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