Pete Crow-Armstrong’s top 2026 games
Pete Crow-Armstrong recorded a +3.0 or better Box-Toppers game score in 14 Cubs’ wins in 2026, but earned Player of the Game honors in only five. In the other nine games, a teammate posted a higher game score to claim the honor.The 14 Cubs wins in which Crow-Armstrong posted a +3.0 or better game score are listed below, ranked from his highest to lowest game score (BTG). Games in which he won Player of the Game honors are highlighted. Also shown are the Box-Toppers points (BTP) he earned (1.0 for Player of the Game, 1.5 for NL Batter of the Day).
The Cubs player who won Player of the Game in each contest is listed at the right with their game scores and Box-Toppers points earned (including 1.7 points for winning NL Player of the Day honors).
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Crow‑Armstrong posted a +3.0 or better Box‑Toppers game score in these 14 Cubs wins. |
PCA won B‑T Player of the Game honors in five of these 14 games. A Cubs teammate won in the other nine. |
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| BTG | BTP | Date | Game | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | Player of the Game | BTG | BTP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ||
| +8.0 | 1.5 | 8/29 | CHC 17, CIN 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong CF | +8.0 | 1.5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +5.0 | 1.5 | 7/25 | CHC 11, PIT 0 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong CF | +5.0 | 1.5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +5.0 | 0.0 | 8/16 | CHC 8, ATL 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Shota Imanaga (W, 11-10) | +8.0 | 1.0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| +4.0 | 0.0 | 9/14 | CHC 7, ATL 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | David Peterson (W, 8-8) | +5.0 | 1.0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ||
| +4.0 | 0.0 | 8/17 | CHC 7, CHW 5 (F/10) | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | Shota Imanaga | +5.0 | 1.0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | ||
| +4.0 | 1.5 | 8/5 | CHC 7, LAD 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong DH | +4.0 | 1.5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 6/6 | CHC 3, SF 2 (F/10) | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Ben Brown | +8.1 | 1.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 5/30 | CHC 6, STL 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Ben Brown (W, 2-2) | +7.0 | 1.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 9/20 | CHC 9, CIN 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | David Peterson (W, 9-8) | +7.0 | 1.0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| +3.0 | 1.0 | 6/15 | CHC 5, COL 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong CF | +3.0 | 1.0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +3.0 | 1.0 | 7/8 | CHC 9, BAL 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong CF | +3.0 | 1.0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 8/23 | CHC 19, SEA 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Pedro Ramírez 2B | +5.0 | 1.5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 7/1 | CHC 23, SD 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Dansby Swanson SS | +10.0 | 1.7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| +3.0 | 0.0 | 7/21 | CHC 11, DET 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | David Peterson (W, 5-7) | +6.2 | 1.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
How is Pete Crow-Armstrong not even among Box-Toppers’ top 10 contenders for the 2026 National League Most Valuable Player Award, even though he is the overwhelming favorite to win the honor?
The simple answer: Teammates frequently beat the Cubs’ center fielder for Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in Chicago victories.
Crow-Armstrong earned 8.5 Box-Toppers points in 2026, ranking 10th among NL batters. While he earned Player of the Game honors seven times during the regular season, he recorded a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0 or higher in 14 total team wins—a threshold that usually secures Player of the Game honors for a batter. However, Crow-Armstrong won Player of the Game in only five of those 14 contests. In the other nine, a teammate posted an even higher game score to claim the honor.
Had Crow-Armstrong won Player of the Game in just five of those nine games, he would have gained at least 5.0 additional Box-Toppers points. That would have elevated his season total to 13.5 points (27.0 adjusted points), catapulting him to first place on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP rankings ahead of Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski (26.1 points). (Box-Toppers doubles batters’ point totals when ranking them directly against pitchers for major awards to balance batters’ lower overall point-earning totals.)
Instead, Crow-Armstrong’s 8.5 actual points yield a doubled total of 17.0 adjusted points, placing him 15th on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP leaderboard—behind five pitchers and nine batters—and leaving him outside our top 10 ballot selections.
A Closer Look at Crow-Armstrong’s POG Squeeze
In all 14 games where Crow-Armstrong logged a game score of +3.0 or higher, the Cubs won. Yet he won Player of the Game in only five of them, while teammates claimed the honor in the remaining nine:
Starting Pitcher David Peterson: Beat Crow-Armstrong three times.
Starting Pitchers Shota Imanaga & Ben Brown: Beat him twice each.
Batters Dansby Swanson & Pedro Ramírez: Beat him once each.
His highest-scoring game without earning Player of the Game occurred Aug. 16 against Atlanta. Crow-Armstrong posted a +5.0 game score, hitting two home runs, a triple, going 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in three runs. But Imanaga earned Player of the Game honors with a +8.0 game score (6IP 4H R 0BB 8K W).
Crow-Armstrong also logged +4.0 game scores in wins on Aug. 17 against the White Sox (2HR 2B 4-5 2R 3BI) and Sept. 14 against Atlanta (HR 2B 4-5 R 4BI), only to be edged by Imanaga (+5.0) and Peterson (+5.0), respectively.
There were three times Crow-Armstrong recorded high game scores in Cubs wins in which the team scored 17 or more runs in the contest. He won Player of the Game honors in one of those games, Aug. 29, with a +8.0 game score, his highest of the season and the 11th-highest for a Player of the Game-winning batter in 2026 (3HR 4-6 4R 6BI in the 17-5 win over the Reds).
But Crow-Armstrong lost Player of the Game honors to a fellow Cubs batter in the other two high-scoring games, posting +3.0 game scores in both:
July 1 in the 23-3 win over the Padres (HR 2-4 2R 3BI), behind Swanson (3HR 3-5 4R 8BI), who recorded a +10.0 game score, the third-highest game score by a Player of the Game-winning batter in 2026. Swanson also led Cubs players in 2026 Box-Toppers points (9.2), while Crow-Armstrong’s 8.5 was third on the team, behind second-place Imanaga (9.0).
Aug. 23 in the 19-2 win over the Mariners (HR 2-4 2R 3BI), behind Ramírez (GS 3-6 3R 5BI), who recorded a +5.0 game score.
Even in Crow-Armstrong’s best performance of the season on Aug. 29, in which he recorded a +8.0 game score, he earned NL Batter of the Day honors (1.5 points) rather than overall Player of the Day honors (2.0 points), which went to Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez (+12.0 game score).
A Box-Toppers comparison of batters’ seasons
Here is a comparison of how batters fared in Box-Toppers over the course of a season. Eight batters' seasons are compared:
▪️ Three top National League batters from 2026—Pete Crow-Armstrong, Sal Stewart and Shohei Ohtani.
▪️ Two top batters from 2024—Ohtani and Aaron Judge—both their leagues' MVP that season.
▪️ Three top MVP candidates from 2025—Judge, Cal Raleigh and Ohtani.
NOTE: Ohtani's statistics here are only for batting and exclude any pitching statistics.
The chart shows each players’:
▪️Box-Toppers point total for the season (BTP).
▪️The number of times each won Player of the Game (POG) honors.
▪️Average Box-Toppers game score (BTG) for all games played in a season.
▪️Average B-T game score in team wins.
▪️Average B-T game score in team losses.
▪️Number of home runs for the season.
▪️The final four columns break down how each player performed in team wins in which they posted a +3.0 or better B-T game score, including their overall total, whether or not they won Player of the Game in these instances (Yes or No), and their success rate in winning Player of the Game honors in team wins when they posted a +3.0 or better B-T game score.
| Player and Year | BTP | Total POG honors |
Avg. BTG |
Avg. BTG in wins |
Avg. BTG in losses |
HRs | Team wins in which player posted +3.0 or better B-T game score |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Did they win Player of the Game? | |||||||||
| Yes | No | Success rate |
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| Pete Crow‑Armstrong 2026 | 8.5 | 7 | -1.39 | -0.61 | -2.34 | 45 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 35.7 |
| Sal Stewart 2026 | 13.0 | 11 | -1.61 | -0.72 | -2.38 | 32 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 77.8 |
| Shohei Ohtani 2026 | 7.0 | 6 | -1.50 | -1.17 | -1.98 | 30 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 42.9 |
| Shohei Ohtani 2024 | 11.0 | 10 | -1.10 | -0.65 | -1.79 | 54 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 62.5 |
| Aaron Judge 2024 | 13.0 | 11 | -0.72 | 0.10 | -1.85 | 58 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 42.1 |
| Aaron Judge 2025 | 6.5 | 4 | -0.73 | -0.26 | -1.42 | 53 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 50.0 |
| Cal Raleigh 2025 | 6.0 | 5 | -1.35 | -0.58 | -2.30 | 60 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 33.3 |
| Shohei Ohtani 2025 | 3.5 | 3 | -1.21 | -0.57 | -2.06 | 55 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 28.6 |
Contrasting Luck: Crow-Armstrong vs. Sal Stewart
Crow-Armstrong won Player of the Game honors in five of the 14 Cubs wins where he logged a +3.0 or higher game score—a conversion rate of 35.7 percent. By contrast, Reds batter Sal Stewart won Player of the Game in seven of the nine Cincinnati wins where he posted a +3.0 or higher game score—a 77.8 percent conversion rate.
Stewart’s higher conversion rate helped propel him to 11 Player of the Game honors and 13.0 total Box-Toppers points (26.0 adjusted), making him the top-ranked full-time batter on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP leaderboard.
This disparity underscores how team roster depth impacts individual point totals. The Reds relied on fewer individual star performances to win games, accumulating 84.2 total team points (20th overall) with only three players earning 5.0 or more points. The Cubs, meanwhile, accumulated 111.2 team points (eighth overall), with nine players earning 5.0 or more points, creating intense internal competition for Player of the Game honors.
Historical Precedent: Judge, Ohtani, Raleigh
Crow-Armstrong’s low conversion rate reflects a pattern seen in recent seasons where elite batters on deep rosters are repeatedly edged out by teammates:
Aaron Judge (2024 American League MVP): Recorded a +3.0 or higher game score in 19 Yankees wins, but won Player of the Game in eight, losing to teammates 11 times (42.1% conversion rate). Because Judge generated 11 total Player of the Game wins, he still led AL batters with 13.0 points. Had he converted those 11 lost games, he would have reached at least 24.0 points, which would have shattered the record for highest single-season total for a batter since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, ahead of Lance Berkman of the Astros, who earned 20.8 points in 2006.
Aaron Judge (2025 AL MVP): Converted just four of eight team wins with a +3.0 or higher game score (50% rate), finishing with 6.5 Box-Toppers points, 20th among AL batters. He was not among Box-Toppers’ top 10 choices for the award.
Cal Raleigh (2025 AL MVP contender): Converted just three of nine team wins with a +3.0 or higher score (33.3% rate), finishing with 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 24th among AL batters.
Shohei Ohtani (2025 NL MVP): Converted just two of seven team wins with a +3.0 or higher score as a batter (28.6% rate), finishing with 3.5 batting points. (He had 5.5 in total, including 2.0 as a pitcher.)
By contrast, Ohtani had a much higher success rate in his 2024 NL MVP season (62.5%), when he won Player of the Game in five of the eight Dodgers wins in which he had a +3.0 or better game score. That propelled him to 10 total Player of the Game wins that season and 11.0 Box-Toppers points, which led NL batters and ranked first among Box-Toppers NL MVP contenders. (Ohtani did not pitch in 2024 as he recovered from 2023 Tommy John surgery.)
Ohtani is also a finalist for NL MVP in 2026. His 15.7 Box-Toppers points led NL batters, but 8.7 of those points came as a starting pitcher. He earned 7.0 points as a designated hitter, winning Player of the Game honors six times as a batter, including winning three times in the seven Dodgers wins in which he had a +3.0 or better game score, a 42.9% success rate.
Summary & Season Conclusion
Crow-Armstrong’s 8.5 points in 2026 mark a slight decline from his 2025 total of 9.5 points (which placed him seventh on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot and ninth in the official vote by the Baseball Writers Asssociation of America (BBWAA).
During a six-game span from Sept. 14 to Sept. 20, Crow-Armstrong experienced extreme swings: in three wins, he posted game scores of +3.0 or higher but lost Player of the Game honors to teammates, while in three other games, he recorded -5.0 game scores (going hitless with strikeouts in each), including two Cubs’ losses.
While traditional metrics and broad consensus make Crow-Armstrong a real-world NL MVP favorite, Box-Toppers’ game-by-game methodology shows how a deep team lineup can divide Player of the Game honors, suppressing an elite player’s overall point total despite outstanding individual performances.
About Box-Toppers
Box-Toppers tracks who contributes most to their team’s victory. Using standard box score statistics, we identify the Player of the Game for every MLB contest. In the regular season, winners earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point, with bonus points awarded to the top overall and league-specific players of the day. More on how Box-Toppers works.
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