KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong, who came into the game hitting .183, was 3 for 4 with a run and the go-ahead RBI as the Chicago Cubs defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-3 on Sunday.
While he was happy to contribute to the victory, Crow-Armstrong and many of his teammates were down about losing teammate Christopher Morel, who was traded during the game to the Tampa Bay Rays for Isaac Paredes.
“He’s a special human,” Crow-Armstrong said of Morel. “We’re going to miss his energy for sure, his smile. Reaching his full Christopher Morel potential every day is a guy showing up every day in the clubhouse.”
Crow-Armstrong got two of his three hits and his RBI off Royals starter Cole Ragans.
“I saw him pretty good,” he said. “I tend to see lefties relatively okay. He’s a really good pitcher. I’m glad he doesn’t use his change-up against lefties, because that’s a good pitch. The Cubbies just had a really good offensive day.
“We want to try to have days like this every day to help have a winning season.”
The Cubs (51-56) are 12-8 in their last 20 games after going 3-9 in their previous 12.
Javier Assad (5-3) allowed three runs on five hits in six innings.
“It was an impressive outing,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said of Assad’s day. “I don’t think Javi started out really well, (but) I think (catcher) Christian (Bethancourt) did a really good job of (sticking) with him, and I thought Javi did a good job of maybe doing things different than he’s done in the past.
“We saw some more off-speed stuff today, and he got his off-speed stuff going, which was really fun to watch.”
Assad said he was just trying to go as far into the game as possible.
“I just tried to go out there and execute,” he said through an interpreter. “I started a little shaky, but I just went out there and attacked the zone.”
Ragans (7-7) took the loss, allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings.
“He gave us a good chance,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said of his starter. “We were into the sixth inning and he gives us a chance. They put some good swings on him.”
Michael Massey led off the first with a walk before Bobby Witt Jr. extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an infield single. With two outs, Hunter Renfroe lined one to center, scoring both runners.
