Cubs 7, Dodgers 6: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s DH day

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Pete Crow-Armstrong got a day off from playing center field, a good idea as the Cubs are still in their stretch of playing 17 days in a row. To keep his bat in the lineup, Craig Counsell made PCA the designated hitter for the afternoon. He’d done that just one other time before this game, Sept. 8, 2025 at Atlanta. He went 0-for-4.

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This time, PCA took the “hitter” part of the DH role to heart, smashing two home runs — including one leading off the first inning — and going 3-for-5, helping the Cubs to a 7-6 win over the Dodgers and a series sweep.

Shohei Ohtani, who’d been pretty quiet in this series, led off the game with a home run. Shōta Imanaga settled down and retired the next three Dodgers in order and then PCA got to work.

It did not take long — he launched Eric Lauer’s first pitch of the game into the bleachers [VIDEO].

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That ball was crushed! [VIDEO]

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Fun facts about Cubs leadoff homers from BCB’s JohnW53:

Pete Crow-Armstrong’s home run was the 245th by the Cubs’ first batter of a game since 1910, first season for which baseball-reference.com has searchable play-level data: 129 at home and 116 on the road.

It was PCA’s fourth. The first three were in a span of five days: June 13 at San Francisco, then June 15-16 at home vs. the Rockies.

Six Cubs have hit five such homers, including Michael Busch and Anthony Rizzo. Five hit more: Alfonso Soriano, 22; Rick Monday, 17; Dexter Fowler, 12; Ian Happ, 10; and Brian McRae, 8.

And one more fact about the two leadoff homers in this game:

So very quickly, this game is 1-1. Imanaga had a long second inning allowing a pair of hits, but got out of it scoreless.

Then the Cubs got to work again in the bottom of the inning. Nico Hoerner led off with a single and one out later, scored on a double by Dansby Swanson [VIDEO].

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One out after that, PCA came to bat again and doubled, scoring Swanson [VIDEO].

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Imanaga had another long third inning, allowing two more hits, but no runs. The Cubs didn’t score in the third but put together a three-run fourth, all after the first two hitters were routine outs.

Tyrone Taylor singled, his first hit as a Cub. And then PCA homered again, his 26th [VIDEO].

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The 26 homers go with his 28 steals and put him ever closer to another 30/30 season.

The Cubs weren’t done in that inning, either. Seiya Suzuki followed the homer with a double and scored on this single by Alex Bregman [VIDEO].

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So it’s 6-1 Cubs going to the fifth. Imanaga was lifted after five innings and 89 pitches. He ran a lot of long counts and got himself out of jams, allowing just the one run on the Ohtani homer. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out six [VIDEO].

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Tyler Ferguson threw two very good scoreless innings in what might be his last game for the Cubs for a while — he’s the likely optionee to Triple-A Iowa whenever Clay Holmes is added to the active roster.

So that’s where the score stayed, 6-1 Cubs, until the bottom of the seventh. Michael Busch led off with a single and then Nico doubled him in [VIDEO]. That was Nico’s third hit of the game and fifth of the series.

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But hold on a second, said the Dodgers. Left fielder Tommy Edman held his arms up, because the ball briefly disappeared into the ivy. But third base umpire Laz Diaz signaled “in play,” and so Busch scored. The Dodgers challenged, but it was ruled “call confirmed” [VIDEO].

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That would turn out to be a very, very, VERY important run.

That’s because Caleb Thielbar got hit hard in the eighth. Even the one out he recorded, a fly to left, was hard hit. After that he gave up four hits in a row: Two singles, a homer by Max Muncy that made it 7-4, and another single. Craig Counsell called on Ryan Zeferjahn, who struck out pinch-hitter Teoscar Hernández for the second out. However, he then had to face Ohtani, who smacked his second homer of the game to left to make it a one-run game. Zeferjahn got out of the inning by striking out Enrique Hernandez.

I suspect Thielbar might have reached the end of his time with the Cubs. Hoby Milner is due back soon and that might mean a DFA of Thielbar.

At that point it started to rain pretty hard, but the umpires let play continue. The Cubs got a runner on in the bottom of the eighth when Carson Kelly singled, but he was stranded.

That meant Jacob Webb would enter to close, something I’m sure Counsell didn’t want to have to do, not with four more games before an off day.

Webb took care of the Dodgers 1-2-3 on 11 pitches to seal the win. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

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A few postgame notes from John:

The Cubs are a season-high 17 games above .500, have won six in a row at home vs. Dodgers and swept Dodgers at home for first time since 2021.

…..

Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong both had three hits.

They are the top two among the Cubs this season in games with at least three. Hoerner has 10; PCA, nine. Seiya Suzuki has seven; Alex Bregman and Michael Busch, six; and Dansby Swanson, five. Carson Kelly joined Ian Happ with three. Three other have two, for a total of 11 players with 55 games.

And some notes on the scoring in this series:

Dodgers’ scoring in this series:
Monday:
three-run homer
single and error (unearned)
solo homer
Tuesday:
solo homer
Wednesday:
solo homer
three-run homer
two-run homer
Twelve total runs, 11 of them on six homers
Cubs scored 21 runs, 12 of them on eight homers

The Cubs’ series sweep was very satisfying, even if a bit nervous at the end Wednesday. They showed the supposedly invincible Dodgers that they can play right with them. The sweep also gave the Cubs the season series over the Dodgers and thus the tiebreaker for postseason, if that’s meaningful. The Cubs are now just three games back of the Dodgers in the overall league standings, 66-49 to 69-46, and trail the Brewers by five games in the NL Central, pending Milwaukee’s game at home against the Pirates this evening.

The Cubs have one more game at home before embarking on a road trip Friday, when we will see the first starts of Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes for the team. They will face the Blue Jays Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, a makeup of a game postponed June 21. David Peterson will start for the Cubs and Dylan Cease goes for the Jays. Game time is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

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