CHICAGO — Pete Crow-Armstrong looked toward the sky and raised his hands in confusion. The Gold Glove center fielder lost the ball in Thursday’s twilight, and it kept rolling toward the Wrigley Field ivy. Another wacky season of Chicago Cubs baseball appeared to be spinning out of control.It wasn’t supposed to be like this, not during the franchise’s 150th anniversary and the 10-year reunion tour for the 2016 World Series team. Jed Hoyer’s front office had exited the rebuilding phase, getting a bigger budget after creating that electric atmosphere for two playoff rounds last October. Every coach on Craig Counsell’s staff last season was invited to return, and nearly all of them accepted the offer.The Cubs believed their continuity and experience would carry them through another 162-game marathon and even deeper into the playoffs. Those assumptions seemed to be crashing down, the way that fly ball suddenly dropped behind Crow-Armstrong, who stood there frozen.
Pete Crow-Armstrong loses a ball in the lights and it turns into an inside-the-park home run pic.twitter.com/vPkrHPXQVz
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 5, 2026After Athletics designated hitter Shea Langeliers kept running for a two-run, inside-the-park homer off Shota Imanaga in the sixth inning, giving the A’s a 4-0 lead, Counsell did not make an example of Crow-Armstrong or blow it out of proportion.When Crow-Armstrong returned to the dugout, a manager known for being both curt and patient delivered a quick message: You can’t think about what just happened. You got to go have a great at-bat.Moments later, Crow-Armstrong hammered J.T. Ginn’s pitch over the right-field wall, getting one run back for an offense mired in a weeks-long funk. Even as the Cubs fell into a five-run deficit in the seventh inning, the ending would still circle back to Crow-Armstrong, one of the sport’s most magnetic personalities.
