MVP race is more like heavyweight fight between Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani as Cubs sweep Dodgers
<p>There’s plenty of speed to go around between Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani, a couple of baseball’s elite base-stealers.</p><p>But their race for the NL MVP is looking less like a race and more like a heavyweight fight.</p><p>The duo took turns delivering haymakers Wednesday, with each guy homering twice in a classic between the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs" >Cubs</a> and Dodgers, Crow-Armstrong setting himself up as very much a legitimate challenger to Ohtani, the once-in-forever two-way star who’s won four MVP awards in the last five years.</p><p>“Today showed that both of them are superstars,” Cubs lefty starter Shota Imanaga said, “especially Pete.</p><p>“Being able to play with him, be teammates with him, that’s such an honor. Once I’m done playing baseball, I’m going to talk about the fact that I got to play with such a great player.”</p><p>Ohtani started another season as the obvious favorite to win another MVP, just like his Dodgers started another season as the obvious favorites to win another World Series.</p><p>But the Cubs spent three days <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2026/08/04/cubs-dodgers-three-peat-world-series-favorites-tarik-skubal-dansby-swanson" >proving themselves challengers</a> to the Dodgers’ throne, playing high-quality, all-around baseball in a sweep of the back-to-back champs, finishing things off with a 7-6 win Wednesday.</p><p>And Crow-Armstrong, as he’s done all season, was right in the middle of everything.
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<p>There’s plenty of speed to go around between Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani, a couple of baseball’s elite base-stealers.</p><p>But their race for the NL MVP is looking less like a race and more like a heavyweight fight.</p><p>The duo took turns delivering haymakers Wednesday, with each guy homering twice in a classic between the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs" >Cubs</a> and Dodgers, Crow-Armstrong setting himself up as very much a legitimate challenger to Ohtani, the once-in-forever two-way star who’s won four MVP awards in the last five years.</p><p>“Today showed that both of them are superstars,” Cubs lefty starter Shota Imanaga said, “especially Pete.</p><p>“Being able to play with him, be teammates with him, that’s such an honor. Once I’m done playing baseball, I’m going to talk about the fact that I got to play with such a great player.”</p><p>Ohtani started another season as the obvious favorite to win another MVP, just like his Dodgers started another season as the obvious favorites to win another World Series.</p><p>But the Cubs spent three days <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2026/08/04/cubs-dodgers-three-peat-world-series-favorites-tarik-skubal-dansby-swanson" >proving themselves challengers</a> to the Dodgers’ throne, playing high-quality, all-around baseball in a sweep of the back-to-back champs, finishing things off with a 7-6 win Wednesday.</p><p>And Crow-Armstrong, as he’s done all season, was right in the middle of everything. <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2026/07/02/cubs-pete-crow-armstrong-mvp-player-of-the-month-june-stats-babe-ruth-lou-gehrig-shohei-ohtani" >That includes the MVP conversation</a> with the best baseball player on the planet.</p><p>Can Crow-Armstrong dethrone Ohtani? Can the Cubs dethrone the Dodgers?</p><p>“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as he feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” Crow-Armstrong said.
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- What's the story?
- <p>There’s plenty of speed to go around between Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani, a couple of baseball’s elite base-stealers.</p><p>But their race for the NL MVP is looking less like a race and more like a heavyweight fight.</p><p>The duo took turns delivering haymakers Wednesday, with each guy homering twice in a classic between the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs" >Cubs</a> and Dodgers, Crow-Armstrong setting himself up as very much a legitimate challenger to Ohtani, the once-in-forever two-way star who’s won four MVP awards in the last five years.</p><p>“Today showed that both of them are superstars,” Cubs lefty starter Shota Imanaga said, “especially Pete.</p><p>“Being able to play with him, be teammates with him, that’s such an honor. Once I’m done playing baseball, I’m going to talk about the fact that I got to play with such a great player.”</p><p>Ohtani started another season as the obvious favorite to win another MVP, just like his Dodgers started another season as the obvious favorites to win another World Series.</p><p>But the Cubs spent three days <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2026/08/04/cubs-dodgers-three-peat-world-series-favorites-tarik-skubal-dansby-swanson" >proving themselves challengers</a> to the Dodgers’ throne, playing high-quality, all-around baseball in a sweep of the back-to-back champs, finishing things off with a 7-6 win Wednesday.</p><p>And Crow-Armstrong, as he’s done all season, was right in the middle of everything.
- How widely is it covered?
- 1 outlet, average source rating 6.0/10.
- When was it last updated?
- 5m ago.
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MVP race is more like heavyweight fight between Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani as Cubs sweep Dodgers
Sources1TypeCoverageChicago Sun-Times