The rollercoaster Pete Crow-Armstrong experience is becoming far too much for Cubs

Just as it seemed the Chicago Cubs' 2026 season finally hit a low point, in the same game, Pete Crow-Armstrong offered hope that the year can still be salvaged. To be clear, the bad part of Thursday's game was very bad.

In the sixth inning of Thursday's victory over the Athletics, Crow-Armstrong lost a ball in the lights. At no point once the ball was hit by Athletics' catcher Shea Langeliers did it look like Crow-Armstrong was tracking the ball. He was frozen in place until the ball landed some distance behind him. The result was a two-run inside-the-pack home run by Langeliers.

In a season that has felt lost for the past month, it finally felt like all hope would be lost moving forward. Especially with how depleted Crow-Armstrong looked in the immediate aftermath of his gaffe.

As Pete Crow-Armstrong goes, the Cubs go

No Cubs fan should be faulted if they decided to turn off the game at that moment. With how the Cubs have played over the better part of five weeks, there was no reason to believe the team would have a response. As it turns out, it was Crow-Armstrong who played hero for the Cubs on the same night, starting with a solo home run in his plate appearance after the fielding gaffe.

But after Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki surprisingly delivered with runners in scoring position in the ninth, Crow-Armstrong was the one who called game.

It's become increasingly clear that of any player on the Cubs roster, Crow-Armstrong is the one who plays with the most emotion. When things go bad, Crow-Armstrong is at the center of that frustration. Even with the heroics on Thursday, the 24-year-old needs to reminded that he can't give up on the play the way that he did once he realized the fly ball landed behind him. There's no excuse, that was a bad look for Crow-Armstrong. Not the first he has had this season.

But when Crow-Armstrong is right, he looks like the true superstar the Cubs expect him to be.

As the Cubs look to get their season back on track, it's possible that Thursday is looked back as the moment that served as a course correction. In order for that to be the case, the Cubs will need more stability from Crow-Armstrong and his emotions. There's a way to channel his emotions in the right direction, and that needs to be the goal moving forward.

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