Pete Crow-Armstrong tied the major league lead with his 45th home run and led the Chicago Cubs to a 9-1 win over the host Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
Crow-Armstrong was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, three runs, his 30th double and his 38th stolen base. He matched Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber at 45 homers, and he became the first center fielder in history with 40 home runs, 30 doubles and 30 steals in a season.
Michael Conforto and Seiya Suzuki also homered for the Cubs (87-69), who are a loss by the Arizona Diamondbacks shy of clinching the playoffs.
JJ Bleday hit a home run for the Reds (72-84), who have dropped three of four.
David Peterson (9-8) was the winner, limiting Cincinnati to one run on three hits in six innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Reds starter Rhett Lowder (6-12) lasted three innings and allowed five runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
Alex Bregman’s two-out RBI single in the first gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead.
Chicago batted around to score four runs in the third for a 5-0 advantage.
With the bases loaded Ian Happ singled in a run, Nico Hoerner walked to force in another and Pedro Ramirez added a two-out, two-run single.
Bregman had to leave the game in the top of the fourth because, while standing in the on-deck circle, he was hit in the face by teammate Michael Busch’s check-swing foul grounder.
Bleday’s two-out solo home run in the bottom of the fourth put Cincinnati on the board. His 23rd cleared the right field fence and landed a few rows into the stands.
The Cubs added three runs in the fifth to make it 8-1 on homers by Conforto and Crow-Armstrong. Conforto hit his 15th to make it 6-1, and Crow-Armstrong’s was a two-run shot with two away. It went into the right-center-field stands and was estimated at 411 feet.
Suzuki added a solo home run in the eighth. His 25th was estimated at 440 feet to center field.
