BOX SCORE

The Chicago Cubs have struggled to win series finales this season.

Not this time.

Led by Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s two-homer outburst, they picked up a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night in the last contest of a three-game set at Dodger Stadium.

Here are three takeaways as the Cubs (11-7) improved to 2-4 in finales and won their fourth consecutive series.

PCA’s big day

Crow-Armstrong has stolen six bases and is baseball’s best defender by Outs Above Average (OAA). His four OAA is tops with four other players in the majors and has helped him produce a 0.3 fWAR early in the season.

Not too bad of a start, especially considering his offensive struggles this season. Crow-Armstrong was slashing .197/.264/.258 (.521 OPS) and a 55 weighted runs-created plus (wRC+), 45 percentage points below league average, entering Sunday.

He needed just three swings to boost those numbers.

Crow-Armstrong delivered his first two home runs of the year — a solo blast off Tyler Glasnow, one of the better pitchers in baseball, in the third inning and a go-ahead homer to center field off Blake Treinen in the seventh.

Crow-Armstrong added a triple in the ninth inning and finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

The 23-year-old center fielder always will provide plus value in the field and on the basepaths, but his bat is what could elevate him into a star status. He was a 2.7 fWAR player in 2024, primarily on the back of defensive prowess and baserunning, as he made some swing adjustments that led to an .807 OPS over his final 57 games. The question this offseason was, what kind of offense would the Cubs receive from him in 2025?

He’s slashing .229/.289/.400 (.689 OPS) and a 98 wRC+ after Sunday. That’s a welcome sign for the Cubs if those numbers continue to rise.

Rea’s start

A 3.2-inning outing rarely is one to write home about. Colin Rea‘s 11-out start was anything but normal, though.

Rea never was going to pitch deep in the game after he was pressed into the rotation following Justin Steele’s now-season-ending injury. Rea was scheduled to start even before that news dropped before the series finale. 

Rea was being stretched out in the spring after he signed a one-year deal in the offseason, then he started the year in the bullpen as the Cubs opted to have Ben Brown in the rotation. They knew Rea eventually would make starts for them, but they probably didn’t think it would happen 18 games into the season. But that’s exactly why the Cubs’ front office valued someone like Rea. He’s comfortable in any role, and on Sunday, he was valuable to the team as a starter.

The Cubs’ rotation is better off with Steele in it — that’s not a debate. But there’s no point in crying over spilled milk, and the Cubs must move on and find a way to fill his place.

That will happen in-house in the interim. The adage “you can never have enough pitching” rings especially true, but teams will not make trades on April 13 to bolster rotations. So, players such as Rea must step up for the Cubs.

Rea allowed only one run in his 3.2 innings of work, racking up five strikeouts, walking one and allowing four hits on 68 pitches. That’s a great outing all things considered. Rea, who made 27 starts for the Milwaukee Brewers last season and 22 more in 2023, should continue to stretch back out and be in the Cubs’ rotation.

A sweet series win

Winning two of three in LA always is an accomplishment. Doing so with the circumstances the Cubs faced makes it more remarkable.

Friday, they received the news that their ace, Steele, was receiving another opinion on his injured elbow. Designated hitter Seiya Suzuki exited Saturday’s game with right wrist discomfort. Then they received the crushing Steele news before Sunday’s finale.

But the Cubs showed their ability to deal with adversity, brushing it off and completing the series win Sunday against the defending World Series champion Dodgers (11-6). That’s some moxie, for sure. There will be plenty of adversity in a baseball season — it’s natural — but early on in 2025, the Cubs haven’t been rattled and have won games.

They came back and won the domestic opener in Arizona after dropping the first two games of the MLB Tokyo Series to the Dodgers. They swept the Athletics in Sacramento, bouncing back from a blown four-run eighth-inning lead in the series finale against the Diamondbacks. The Cubs dropped the opener against the Dodgers on Friday, then crushed them Saturday and eked out a win to take the series.

Are there questions about Suzuki’s health and what the Cubs will do with Steele out? For sure. But wins cure a lot, and all the players can do right now is stack those up. They’re doing just that.