After a sleepy middle-game loss that had Steven Cheah grumbling about zero runs over the final 7 innings against a last-place club, the Cubs remembered they're supposed to beat the Rockies at home. Wrigley turned into a launching pad, Pete Crow-Armstrong went full main character, and by the time the dust settled the W flag was flying.
PCA opened the scoring with a no-doubt blast off Ryan Feltner and let it rip rounding the bases.
That was just the appetizer. PCA kept it rolling the next night with a ball that flirted with the foul pole long enough to make every fan in the bleachers hold their breath before it was ruled fair. Three straight games with a home run, and suddenly the MVP whispers aren't whispers anymore.
Crow-Armstrong's third-straight-game shot hooked toward the line and stayed fair, arms up before he hit first base.
He wasn't alone. Dansby Swanson got in on the act with a 102 MPH missile over the ivy in the bottom of the 2nd to blow the closeout game wide open, the kind of early dagger that turns a Wrigley afternoon into a coronation. By the 4th it was 7-1 and the only suspense left was whether PCA would homer again. (Spoiler: he did.)
Dansby Swanson cleared the Gallagher ivy at 102 MPH to bury the Rockies early.
Eric Hubbs summed up the vibe perfectly afterward — under the new rules, fans actually get to sit back and enjoy the moon shots instead of slogging through what he called the rapid fire stupidity. That's the whole pitch right there. Big swings, big sound, big flag at the end.
No brainer. Now we get to appreciate the moon shots instead of the rapid fire stupidity
Cheah's final word was fair: a series win is a series win, even against a bad team. The Cubs still need to start beating the clubs that aren't bottom-feeding in the NL, and Edward Cabrera reportedly going down again means the rotation depth questions aren't going anywhere. But for one weekend at Wrigley, PCA was the show, Dansby played co-star, and Clark got to sprint the outfield with the W. Take it.
Clark waves the W across the outfield grass to cap the series win.