Crow-Armstrong Joins the 40-40 Club as Cubs Clinch

Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 40th base on Thursday and the Chicago Cubs clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 win over Miami. The 24-year-old center fielder joined baseball’s 40-40 club in the first inning at Wrigley Field, then watched a grind of a home finale lock a National League wild-card berth.

Chicago is 88-71 and back in October for a second straight year, the first back-to-back Cubs playoff run since 2015-18. The White Sox had already punched their own ticket in Kansas City. For one afternoon, both Chicago clubs got in on the same day for the first time.

Pete Crow-Armstrong Steals His Way Into 40-40

After Matthew Boyd set Miami down in the first, Crow-Armstrong led off with a walk against right-hander Tyler Phillips. He broke for second on the first pitch to Seiya Suzuki and was in with the 40th steal of a 47-attempt season. Marlins second baseman Jared Serna never had a play.

The Wrigley board flashed the 40-40 graphic. Fans chanted MVP. Bleacher flags read M-V-Pete. Broadcaster Jon Sciambi called it on the air: “Forty-forty for the soon-to-be MVP, Pete Crow-Armstrong!” The center fielder pointed to the sky, lifted his helmet, then tapped his chest when the ovation would not die.

That was the most emotion I think I’ve ever experienced on a baseball field. It wasn’t relief, it wasn’t anxiety. It was a sense of gratitude.

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs center fielder, at Wrigley Field

He is the seventh player in Major League history with at least 40 homers and 40 steals in one season, and the first Cub to do it. He went 1-for-3 with the walk, finished the day batting.280 with 45 homers, 107 RBI and 119 runs, and has played every game. The 45th homer came Sunday in a 9-1 win at Cincinnati.

He had already wanted the number. He also wanted it framed as a team play.

I’ve recently felt how badly people wanted it for me. And I wanted it. And I wanted to put myself in that same conversation as such impressive and great players, but every day I showed up like, if I took the right base, it was going to help the team. That’s how I’ve framed everything this year.

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs center fielder, after the game

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer called it the best position-player season he has seen in his career and said Crow-Armstrong will win MVP, the Hank Aaron Award, and the Platinum Glove. Manager Craig Counsell said fans have been chanting the initials since a 2023 debut at Coors Field, and that those chants turned into MVP calls this summer.

The official clip went up while the ovation was still rolling.

PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG HAS A 40/40 SEASON! pic.twitter.com/Ltc5YX110L

— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2026

A 2-1 Clincher on the Last Home Date

The steal was the afternoon’s loudest moment. The win was a pitcher’s game. Boyd, the Opening Day starter, went seven innings, allowed one run on five hits and two walks, and moved to 10-5. Jakob Marsee’s RBI single in the third was the only dent. Ryan Zeferjahn threw a perfect ninth for his seventh save and closed a five-hitter.

Suzuki tied it in the fifth with his 26th homer, a solo drive off Jack Ralston. Ian Happ, the longest-tenured Cub on the roster, led off the sixth with a triple into the right-center gap. Nico Hoerner singled him home three pitches later. That 2-1 lead held.

Chicago had dropped the first two games of the Marlins series and let earlier clinch chances slip. A 20-3 burst from April 14 to May 8 had been followed by a 2-14 slide. Counsell did not dress it up.

“Hasn’t been all smooth,” he said, “but you develop some calluses through that and I think it gets you through a lot of stuff.”

Happ, who has been through winning summers on this roster, put the same idea in fewer words. “I’ve seen a lot of winning here,” he said. “It’s been a rollercoaster but the resilience of this group and our ability to get through it speaks volumes.”

Who Else Has Gone 40-40 in a Season?

Jose Canseco opened the club on Sept. 23, 1988, with 42 homers and 40 steals for Oakland. Barry Bonds matched 42 and 40 for San Francisco in 1996. Alex Rodriguez went 42 and 46 for Seattle in 1998. Alfonso Soriano hit 46 and stole 41 for Washington in 2006. Then the list sat still for 17 years.

Ronald Acuña Jr. blew it open with 41 homers and 73 steals for Atlanta in 2023. Shohei Ohtani hit 54 and stole 59 for the Dodgers in 2024, then kept going to 50-50. Crow-Armstrong’s 45 and 40 makes him the third man with at least 45 homers in a 40-steal season, with Ohtani and Soriano. He is 24. Only Canseco and Rodriguez got there younger.

THE SEVEN 40-40 SEASONS

Three of those seven seasons have now landed in a four-year span, which is why the feat feels less mythical than it did when Canseco invented it. The 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases list is still seven names long. Hoyer’s point was the company, not the calendar. “There are only so many guys in the game that can even think about accomplishing it,” he said. “The list is pretty amazing.”

Crow-Armstrong was already the first Cub with 40 homers and 30 steals. He is only the second Cub with a 30-30 season, after Sammy Sosa in 1993 and 1995, and he did 30-30 last year as well. His 45 homers put him with Sosa, Ernie Banks, Hack Wilson, Andre Dawson, Dave Kingman, and Derrek Lee as the only Cubs to reach that number. Lee’s 46 in 2005 was the last. He also passed Billy Williams’ 42 in 1970 for the most homers by a left-handed Cub in a season. The 40th homer, on Sept. 6, came off the same pitcher, Phillips, in Miami.

Back-to-Back Cubs Octobers for the First Time Since 2018

The clinch is a wild-card ticket, not a division flag. Milwaukee locked the NL Central last week at 99-59 and sits 11.5 games ahead. Chicago will open a best-of-three Wild Card Series that begins Tuesday, Sept. 29. Last year the Cubs beat San Diego in the first round and lost a Division Series to those same Brewers.

The last time this franchise stacked Octobers, the window ran four years and ended in a title.

THE LAST CUBS OCTOBER WINDOW

1. 2015: Wild-card win over Pittsburgh, Division Series win over St. Louis, lost the NLCS to the Mets.
2. 2016: World Series champions, the first Cubs title since 1908, 103-58 in the regular season.
3. 2017: Division Series win over Washington, lost the NLCS to the Dodgers.
4. 2018: Lost the wild-card game to Colorado, the last of four straight trips.
5. 2025: Wild-card win over San Diego, lost a five-game Division Series to Milwaukee.
6. 2026: Wild-card berth locked on Sept. 24, with three games left and the seed still open.

Ten years after that 2016 title, the 2026 club is trying to turn an anniversary season into a longer run. The 2015-18 core is gone. This version leans on a 24-year-old in center, a veteran lefty on the mound, and a lineup that has had to outscore a pitching staff Counsell has mixed and matched for months. They are in. They are not the 1 seed. The next week decides which of the three wild-card slots they actually take.

Two Chicago Tickets Punched on the Same Afternoon

The Cubs clinched shortly after the White Sox beat Kansas City 9-1. It is only the fourth year both Chicago teams have reached the playoffs, after 1906, 2008, and the shortened 2020 season. It is the first time they clinched on the same day.

THE FOUR SHARED CHICAGO OCTOBERS

• 1906: The only all-Chicago World Series, which the White Sox won 4-2.
• 2008: Both clubs reached the postseason in the same year for the first time in a century.
• 2020: The pandemic sprint, when both lost in the best-of-three wild-card round.
• 2026: Same-day clinches, the Cubs on a 2-1 home grind and the White Sox on a 9-1 road blowout.

Dansby Swanson, the Cubs shortstop, did not overwork the civic point. “This city deserves all the great things,” he said. The South Side piece is a separate turnaround, a first playoff trip since 2021 after three straight 100-loss years. On the North Side the expectation was always October. Getting there on the same afternoon still landed as a city first.

A Fenway Doubleheader Still Decides the Seed

The Cubs have three games left, all at Fenway Park against Boston. A nor’easter is forecast for the weekend, so Major League Baseball moved Sunday’s game up and built a split doubleheader for Friday, with first pitches at 1:05 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. ET. Saturday remains listed at 7:15 p.m. ET. The clubs asked for the Friday pile-up rather than a Monday makeup on the eve of the Wild Card Series.

Miami, at 78-81, is headed home for a season-ending series with Atlanta and a third straight non-winning year. Chicago’s remaining work is about seeding among the Padres, Phillies, and Cubs, and about how a bullpen that has been patched all summer holds up through two games in one day. Counsell sounded almost glad the path was still messy.

“That’s actually the fun of it, is we don’t know what’s going to get thrown in front of us,” he said.

Crow-Armstrong, already in the club that has only seven names, put the ticket in plainer terms. “You just appreciate that you’re here,” he said. “And I’m sure I’ll continue to learn that it doesn’t really matter how you make the playoffs. It’s just the fact that you’re there and that you’ve given yourself a chance to go play more baseball.” The chance starts Tuesday. The seed still has to survive Boston weather first.