Pete Crow-Armstrong Hits 3 Home Runs After Sammy Sosa Prediction: Cubs Rout Reds 17-5
Sammy Sosa walked up to Pete Crow-Armstrong before Friday’s game at Wrigley Field and told the 24-year-old center fielder he was going to hit three home runs. PCA went out and hit three home runs. That is not something that happens in real life, and yet it did.
The Cubs bludgeoned the Reds 17-5 on Aug. 29, 2026, with Crow-Armstrong going 4-for-6 with 6 RBIs. He homered in the first (solo), the second (two-run), and the seventh (three-run). By the time he stepped in for that third at-bat, everyone in the ballpark knew exactly what was coming. He still did it.
“Sammy Sosa told me I was gonna hit 3 and I hit 3,” Crow-Armstrong said afterward. “Put that on the record.”
Youngest Cub to Ever Do It
At 24 years, 157 days old, PCA is now the youngest player in Chicago Cubs history to hit three home runs in a game. That is a franchise with a lot of history and a lot of great hitters. He is now on top of that particular list, and he got there on the same day the organization was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the franchise with Sosa in the building.
You could not script this any better if you tried. Sosa, back in the Cubs family after years of distance, plays soothsayer to the kid who has taken over center field at Wrigley. The kid delivers. The building loses its mind.
The MVP Case Is Real Now
Let’s stop dancing around it. Pete Crow-Armstrong is an NL MVP candidate, and after Friday he might be the frontrunner. He is slashing .282/.377/.567 with 36 home runs and 89 RBIs in 136 games. He plays elite center field defense. He runs the bases like his hair is on fire. The Cubs are 77-59 and playing October baseball in August.
The advanced metrics love him. The eye test loves him. The narrative just got a supercharger bolted onto it. When Sammy Sosa is calling your shots and you are hitting them, voters notice.
The question was always whether PCA could be a middle-of-the-order bat, not just a defensive weapon with speed. Thirty-six home runs answers that. A .567 slugging percentage answers that. Six RBIs on a Friday afternoon against a division opponent answers it in bold.
Wrigley Is Alive
The North Side has not felt like this in a while. The Cubs sold at recent deadlines, rebuilt on the fly, and quietly assembled a lineup with actual thump. Now they are 18 games over .500 and the face of the franchise is a 24-year-old kid getting home run predictions from Sammy Sosa in the middle of a pennant race.
If the Cubs make a real playoff run this October, this game becomes lore. Fathers will tell their kids about the day Sosa called it and PCA cashed it. Wrigley bleachers will make T-shirts. Somebody is already writing the 30 for 30 pitch.
Pete Crow-Armstrong has arrived. He has been arriving for a while, but Friday was the day it stopped being a debate. Put that on the record.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
