The Seventh Member of the 40-40 Club Plays Center Field at Wrigley

Pete Crow-Armstrong didn't make anyone wait. He walked to lead off Thursday's game, took off on the next pitch, and slid into second with his 40th stolen base of the year. Wrigley chanted "MVP." He had already hit 45 home runs, which leads the majors.

That makes him the seventh player ever with 40 homers and 40 steals in a season. The list: Jose Canseco in 1988, Barry Bonds in 1996, Alex Rodriguez in 1998, Alfonso Soriano in 2006, Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023 and Shohei Ohtani in 2024. Crow-Armstrong is 24, has been caught only seven times in 47 tries, and is a front-runner for NL MVP.

Crow-Armstrong in 2023, while he was still in the minors.

Then the Cubs finished the job

The rest of the night was a pitchers' game. Matthew Boyd gave up one run over seven innings, Seiya Suzuki homered in the fifth to tie it, and Ian Happ tripled to open the sixth and scored on Nico Hoerner's single. Ryan Zeferjahn pitched a perfect ninth. Cubs 2, Marlins 1.

At 88-71, Chicago clinched a National League wild card and a second straight playoff trip. The last time the Cubs went to October in back-to-back years was the 2015-18 run that included the 2016 title. Across town, the White Sox had clinched earlier in the evening with a win in Kansas City.

Last year's Cubs beat San Diego in the wild-card round before Milwaukee knocked them out. This year they close the regular season with a weekend series in Boston.