Pete Crow-Armstrong's MVP blast wasn't enough for the Cubs

For about 5 minutes on Wednesday night in St. Louis, the Cubs had this game won. Pete Crow-Armstrong stepped up in the top of the 10th and did what he's been doing all season, launching a two-run shot that put Chicago up 2-0 and had the whole Barstool timeline losing its mind.

Barstool Chicago

@barstoolchicago

ANOTHER CLUTCH BOMB FROM PCA THIS IS YOUR MVP AMERICA

It was his 24th homer of the season, a 424-foot missile that had exit velocity readings people were still talking about minutes later. Steven Cheah called it PCA's actual MVP moment of the year, and honestly, it's hard to argue — the guy's been the one consistent thing about this Cubs offense all summer.

Then the bottom of the 10th happened. Cardinals reliever situation turned into a nightmare fast, and Iván Herrera delivered the walk-off blow to flip a 2-0 Cubs lead into a 3-2 Cardinals win in a blink. Cubs reliever Trent Thornton took the loss after coughing up the lead he was handed. It's the kind of finish that makes a monster individual performance feel completely irrelevant by the time the dust settles.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

AND THATS A CARDINALS WALKOFF

The reaction from Cubs fans was exactly what you'd expect. Steven Cheah summed up the whiplash in one line — you can't lose after that PCA homer — before following up with a crying reaction clip captioned simply "Nevermind." Barstool Chicago wasn't any kinder, calling the collapse "absolutely sickening stuff after an MVP moment from PCA."

It's a rough one to swallow for a Cubs team that's leaned hard on Crow-Armstrong's power and defense to carry stretches where the rest of the lineup goes quiet. Manager Craig Counsell didn't sugarcoat it afterward, noting the offense basically did nothing for 9 innings before the late-inning fireworks. That's the story in a nutshell — one huge swing wasn't enough to erase 9 innings of nothing, and St. Louis made sure of it in extras.

Games like this tend to stick around in a fanbase's memory longer than the box score suggests. Crow-Armstrong keeps building an MVP-caliber season, but nights like Wednesday are a reminder that individual brilliance doesn't always translate to Ws when the pitching staff behind him can't hold the line.