Pete Crow Armstrong Hits 13th Cubs Cycle in Reverse Order
Pete Crow Armstrong hit for the cycle on Monday night, finishing homer, triple, double, single in four at-bats. The Cubs center fielder did it in reverse order and became the 13th batter in club history to complete the feat.
Crow-Armstrong’s four-hit path
He started with a leadoff home run, his second in the last three games, then added a third-inning triple off the ivy, a fifth-inning double into the right-field corner and a seventh-inning single to finish the cycle. That sequence left no doubt by the final trip, and it gave him the kind of clean box score that rarely shows up without one last hit arriving late.
The reverse-order cycle is the detail that separates this night from a standard big game. Crow-Armstrong needed all four at-bats to get there, and each one added a different piece: power to start, speed on the triple, gap contact on the double and a simple single to close it out.
Chicago’s 13th cycle
The cycle was the 13th in Cubs history, and it came one season after Carson Kelly hit for the cycle for Chicago. That gives the team back-to-back seasons with a cycle from two different players, a rare run of complete offensive nights at a time when the club has needed more than isolated highlights.
Crow-Armstrong has supplied plenty of those. Since May 30, he has been batting.453 with seven homers and 14 extra-base hits. He also homered and delivered a walk-off hit in a win over the A’s, then homered twice, including a game-tying shot in the ninth inning, in a win over the Giants on the ensuing home stand.
Cubs need the surge
That stretch matters because the Cubs had already gone through an 8-22 run that dropped them from atop the NL Central to.500. Crow-Armstrong’s recent production has helped steady the lineup while he has stayed near the top of it for weeks, and the cycle added another line to a hot run that already included NL Player of the Week honors.
For the Cubs, the value is not just the rare cycle. It is the way Crow-Armstrong has piled up extra-base hits while the team tries to climb back from that 8-22 slide, with his bat now carrying the sort of form that can change a series one swing at a time.
