Cubs' offensive formula clicks in stateside opening win

PHOENIX -- Pete Crow-Armstrong popped up out of his slide, stood on second base and emphatically pumped his left arm in the air in celebration. The Cubs center fielder shouted in the direction of his teammates in the visitors’ dugout after pulling off a play not immediately obvious in a box score.

Crow-Armstrong used his plus speed to reach safely to avoid a fielder’s choice groundout, keeping a fifth-inning rally alive and loading the bases for the North Siders. It set up a three-run double for Miguel Amaya that helped the Cubs pull off a 10-6 victory over the D-backs in Chicago’s domestic opener at Chase Field.

“That’s what we want,” said Amaya, who delivered five RBIs between two doubles in the win. “Every time we take advantage of those little things – running the bases in the right way, taking good at-bats, putting the ball in play – we’re going to win a lot of ballgames.”

In a season with a heightened sense of urgency for the Cubs to make the playoffs -- both to end a four-year postseason drought, but also to potentially extend Jed Hoyer’s stay as the team’s president of baseball operations -- winning small moments like that will loom large. Hoyer spent the offseason building a deeper lineup and roster with the clear goal of doing what it takes to get back onto the October stage.

And while the Cubs’ two-game Tokyo Series against the defending World Series champion Dodgers resulted in a pair of losses last week, Chicago believes it has a group capable of claiming the National League crown. Thursday’s win over Arizona put a few facets of the Cubs’ offensive formula on display, too.

“Absolutely,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That was an awesome representation of what this lineup could be all year.”

The Cubs’ blockbuster offseason acquisition, Kyle Tucker, delivered an RBI single in the second and made a slick sliding catch to rob Eugenio Suárez of a potential hit in the fourth. Crow-Armstrong added a hit, walk and stolen base as he continues to look like one of the game’s young budding stars. Shaw -- Pipeline’s top Cubs prospect and No. 19 on the Top 100 -- scored three runs, including two sprints home from first base.

A few of the Cubs’ core players did their part as well. Left fielder Ian Happ set the tone in the leadoff spot with a two-run double, the team’s first home run of '25 and a walk in the win. Second baseman Nico Hoerner made his season debut and contributed two hits, including a two-out single up the right-field line in the sixth for Chicago’s eighth run.

“We have a really interesting and deep lineup,” Happ said.

Happ is now one of the veterans in the room, having been selected in the first round of the '15 Draft and debuting in '17 -- the year after the Cubs’ historic World Series triumph. He broke in with the last core group, remained through a rebuilding period and is now a key piece to the current roster.

The outfielder is also aware of how the results on the field this season could impact whether ownership extend’s Hoyer’s contract.

“I love Jed,” Happ said. “He’s been awesome to me and he’s been a part of building a lot of great teams that I’ve been a part of. So, yeah, I think we want to win for each other in this room, but I have nothing but respect for him and I want to make sure that he stays here.”

Hoyer appreciated hearing that, but shifted the focus back to the players.

“It feels good,” Hoyer said. “Certainly, I never want to make it about me at all.”

Making the postseason will likely solve that underlying storyline.

“I really like this group of players,” Hoyer said. “I think they generally feel like we left some meat on the bone the last couple years, and I think they’re pretty hungry for this year.”

A play like the one Crow-Armstrong made in the fifth put that hunger on full display.

“We had the right guy in the right spot,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “But it’s also the care factor of getting an aggressive secondary lead, thinking, ‘I can beat out a routine ground ball to shortstop.’ The care factor is what’s really important there.

“[Those plays] add up. You’re not going to get the big hit every night, but when you get a three-run hit after a play like that, that’s the reason you do it.”