The Cubs didn't just beat Paul Skenes on Saturday night, they mugged him. Pittsburgh's ace, who'd been rounding into Cy Young form after allowing just 5 runs across his previous 3 starts, got torched for 5 earned runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 5 1/3 innings, even with 11 strikeouts to show for it. Stuff was there. Results were not. And the guy most responsible for that was the same guy who's quietly been the best story in Chicago all season.
Barstool Baseball's reaction as the Cubs started peeling the paint off Skenes early.
Pete Crow-Armstrong finished the night 4-for-5, a triple short of the cycle, with an extra-base hit in 3 straight innings and a 2-run shot to right that pushed Chicago's lead to double digits. The homer was his 23rd of the year, a number that would've sounded fake for PCA a year ago, back when he was known more for his glove in center than anything he did in the box. That version of Crow-Armstrong doesn't exist anymore.
Steven Cheah wasn't shy about calling the individual matchup for Crow-Armstrong over Skenes.
Skenes came in as one of the best pitchers on the planet, a guy who's made a habit of shutting down lineups deep into starts. None of that mattered once Chicago started stacking extra-base hits. By the time Crow-Armstrong's homer off reliever Ron Marinaccio landed, the Cubs were sitting on a 10-run cushion in the seventh inning of what became an 11-0 rout. Games like that don't happen against Pittsburgh's rotation very often, and they especially don't happen with the other team's ace still in uniform watching it unfold.
The Cubs' bats kept finding Skenes all night, and Barstool Baseball tracked the damage in real time.
This is the part where the MVP chatter stops being a bit. A four-hit night against a legitimate Cy Young candidate, on the road, with power and contact both showing up, is the kind of stat line that gets circled in September. Crow-Armstrong has been building this case in pieces all year, and Saturday was the loudest one yet.
Marty Mush summed up the vibe with two words after homer No. 23 made it 10-0.
The Cubs aren't just winning these games, they're embarrassing good pitchers while they do it, and Crow-Armstrong is the common thread. If Chicago wants to make noise into October, this is the version of him they need showing up every fifth day Skenes or not.