Pete Crow-Armstrong Explains Frustration, Laments How Umps ‘Find New Ways to Screw Something Up’

If you’ve ever snapped at someone, whether in person or online (as is probably more often the case these days), you probably realized after the fact that it wasn’t about that moment. I’d say the chances are more than good that a series of events from previous hours, days, or longer had led you to the point where one little push caused your emotional river to overflow its banks. That was the case for Pete Crow-Armstrong, who narrowly avoided an ejection after a heated exchange with umpires following an obvious missed balk call.

“There’s f*cking four of you guys,” an exasperated PCA said on the field. “G*dd*mmit.”

The most obvious source of his frustration was more immediate, as the Cubs were stuck in a scoreless tie and would have taken the lead had the correct call been made. Then you’ve got the fact that the umpires convened and determined that none of them had seen Diamondbacks lefty Eduardo Rodriguez clearly step off the rubber during his delivery in order to hasten his move to the plate with the runner leading aggressively off third.

Pete Crow-Armstrong addresses the media after today’s loss to the Diamondbacks ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/wcjXg4oF6l

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“I saw four umpires miss a pretty obvious play,” PCA told reporters in the clubhouse after the game. They’re out there every day just like we are. Their one job is to get calls right, and if they get it wrong they’re supposed to talk about it, figure it out, and get it right. And they didn’t.”

Then you add that Matthew Boyd, who pitched wonderfully on Wednesday, was called for a controversial balk in his last start that resulted in Craig Counsell being ejected. Not only was that call still relatively fresh in the Cubs’ minds, but this was a reminder of the farce that balks and other judgment calls are not reviewable at a time when we can determine balls and strikes within less than a tenth of an inch of the zone.

“We just recently saw a much crazier balk called to our pitcher,” Crow-Armstrong noted. “And it was the first balk that’s been called against him in the entire time that he’s been with us, and I’m pretty sure longer as well.”

In point of fact, Boyd hadn’t been called for a balk since Joe West called one on him back in 2019. Ol’ Cowboy Joe was serving as the third base ump in that game, which is something to file away for now. During the Cubs’ 6-5 walk-off loss to the Mariners last Friday, home plate umpire Brennan Miller — not to be confused with CHGO’s Brendan Miller — called Boyd’s pickoff attempt to first base illegal.

“It’s not a balk,” Counsell said afterwards. “He hasn’t been called for a balk in seven years. It’s a situation where the umpire got fooled and made up a call, because he got fooled. It’s not a balk. Flat out. No other umpire is calling that a balk.”

The Cubs were trailing 4-3 at the time, and the balk pushed the runner into scoring position before he advanced to third and then scored on a single. That extra run was pretty big because it required the Cubs to score two to tie before eventually losing in extras. Runs were much harder to come by on Wednesday, so PCA knew just how important it was to push one across by any possible means.

“Now, that’s not to take away from what Eduardo was doing to us today, because he was All-Star Eduardo Rodriguez and he was nails,” the fiery outfielder explained. “When a guy is shoving it down your throat — pause — you gotta find any way you can to make something happen. And that’s exactly what I was just trying to do, and I executed.

“It would have been nice if the umpires did the same. But I get it from Alfonso’s (Marquez) point of view at home plate; tough to see with two people standing in front of you and all you’re trying to do is call the right pitch. I don’t know how you miss somebody starting their motion and then stopping it and stepping off…I just don’t know.”

For what it’s worth, the umpires admitted that they were wrong once they’d gotten a chance to review the replay. It’s just too bad that evidence wasn’t available to them during the game.

“We just didn’t see it,” Marquez said via pool reporter. “After looking at the video, it looked like he stepped off.”

In addition to his beef with the call itself, Crow-Armstrong admitted that his own recent struggles contributed to his explosive reaction. The leading MVP candidate was 0-for-8 with walk in the first two games of the series, then struck out twice against Rodriguez before doubling to lead off the 6th inning. A third strikeout in the 8th made it an overall down game for the Cubs’ most dynamic offensive force.

“If I’m gonna sit here and bitch about this stuff, I should have done better today,” PCA admitted. “Shouldn’t have punched out three times, should have had better at-bats all series. I was pretty nonexistent, so I think you guys just saw my frustrations from the last three days kinda come out, and I’m gonna stick by it and say rightfully so.

“‘Cause I didn’t appreciate the other umpire (Mike Estabrook) coming up to me after Q (Quintin Berry) had calmed the situation down. I think they find new ways to screw something up every day.”

A big part of this is the subjectivity around balk rules, which can make calls and non-calls alike difficult to stomach. The Cubs have pretty flat as a team outside of their stretch of 30 unanswered runs that was still only good enough to win them two out of six games on this last road swing. This is when Joe Maddon might have reminded PCA and the others not to let the pressure exceed the pleasure, though there are still times when you need to let off a little steam.

Maybe stewing in this loss and the disappointing trip will be for the best as the Cubs head into a seven-game homestand against the Reds and Brewers. While they’re still mathematically within reach of the division lead, the greater concern should be maintaining the top Wild Card spot. That won’t happen by dropping two of three games at a time, nor will the Cubs be able to rely on a call going one way or the other to help them. The fact of the matter is that they didn’t play well enough in Seattle or Arizona to deserve more wins.

I agree with PCA that the umps need to do better, but none of that matters if the guys in the lineup only collect two hits or the bullpen can’t protect a late lead.