Pete Crow-Armstrong further strengthened his case to win National League MVP honors by hitting his 40th home run on Sunday.
The Chicago Cubs outfielder reached the milestone in the fifth inning, pulling a sweeper left in the middle of the strike zone by Miami Marlins pitcher Tyler Phillips down the right-field line.
With his 40th homer, Crow-Armstrong put himself on a pedestal with two of the legendary players in team history. He’s the second left-handed Cub to hit 40 home runs, joining Billy Williams, who hit 42 in 1972. He’s also the second Cub to hit at least 40 homers at the age of 24 or younger. Ernie Banks hit 44 as a 24-year-old in 1955.
The Cubs have 18 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, so Crow-Armstrong has time to match or surpass both of those totals. With 33 stolen bases, he could also become the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 homers with 40 steals. Shohei Ohtani was the last to do so in 2024 as the first player ever to go 50-50 in a season.
Standing alone, Crow-Armstrong is the first player in Cubs history to record 40 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a season. He also joins José Canseco (1988), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023) as standouts who reached those numbers during a season at 24 years old or younger. Canseco and Acuña each won MVP honors after achieving the feat.
This season, only Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber has more home runs among MLB hitters with 42. Crow-Armstrong leads the NL with a .573 slugging percentage and a .948 OPS, while batting .280 with 28 doubles and 96 RBI.
The 2026 season has included several benchmarks for the Cubs center fielder. On Aug. 18, Crow-Armstrong hit a leadoff home run and walk-off homer against the Chicago White Sox. (He hit another leadoff homer the next day.) And he recorded his first 3-homer game on Aug. 29.
Nine players have hit 40 or more home runs in a season for the Cubs, the most recent being Derrek Lee in 2006 with 46 homers. Sammy Sosa did it seven times (hitting 50 or more in four of his 13 years with the Cubs). Banks surpassed the 40-homer mark five times. Ryne Sandberg (40 in 1990), Andre Dawson (49, 1987), Dave Kingman (48, 1979), Hank Sauer (41, 1954) and Hack Wilson (56, 1930) each did so once.
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