To say it's been a rough week for Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong would be a total understatement.
After going viral on Sunday and earning a fine as a result of his verbal altercation with a Chicago White Sox fan sitting behind the center field fence, Crow-Armstrong had to rapidly shift his attention to a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers, in what was an early battle for National League Central supremacy. The Brewers swept the Cubs, turning a 1 1/2-game deficit into a 1 1/2-game lead in the division, and Crow-Armstrong was the most visible scapegoat of the series by far.
It didn't help matters at all that Crow-Armstrong went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in the series at the plate. But his defensive gaffes -- one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday -- were the leading storyline. He dropped a relatively easy catch on a Sal Frelick fly ball in the second game of the series, which ultimately didn't end up costing the Cubs a run, but he cost them two on Wednesday when David Hamilton's line drive up the middle skipped under his glove and turned into a Little League home run.
Knowing how much pride he takes in his defense (remember, he won the Gold Glove in center field for the National League last year), Crow-Armstrong's reaction to those errors was worth analyzing.
“Yesterday and today are genuinely laughable,” Crow-Armstrong said, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “I think one thing I can fall back on is that it’s never really a lack of focus, but trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production that I've given this team and this city. And, not acting how I should.
“I think anything physical usually starts mental, and I think that’s just what I’m showing everybody right now. You show up and keep pushing, but that can’t happen. That kind of stuff, that just can’t happen.”
A high percentage of outfield errors are mental in some capacity, so Crow-Armstrong has a bug or two to work out over the coming weeks. But ultimately, Cubs fans might look back on these moments and simply be glad they happened in May, not closer to crunch time.