Cubs Clinch Second Straight Playoff Berth as Crow-Armstrong Joins 40-40 Club

The Chicago Cubs clinched a second straight National League wild-card berth with a 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday, locking consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since their 2015-18 run, Sportsnet reported via the Associated Press.

Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 40th base to go with a major-league-leading 45 home runs, becoming the seventh member of baseball’s 40-40 club. The group includes Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., and Jose Canseco, who first reached the mark with the 1988 Oakland Athletics, the AP roundup said.

Seiya Suzuki homered for Chicago as the Cubs improved to 88-71 and assured themselves of one of the NL’s three wild-card spots. Crow-Armstrong, a leading National League MVP candidate, reached the milestone in the same night the club punched its October ticket.

Chicago was a wild card last season, beating San Diego in the first round before falling to Milwaukee in a Division Series. Consecutive playoff berths return the franchise to a stretch it last sustained from 2015 through 2018, a run that included the 2016 World Series championship — the Cubs’ first title since 1908.

The Cubs clinched shortly after the Chicago White Sox sealed their own postseason trip with a 9-1 win at Kansas City, giving the city two playoff clubs on the same night, Sportsnet noted. Miami (78-81) was assured a third straight non-winning season.

For readers following October races on Sports, Crow-Armstrong’s 40-40 night and the clinch arrive with three games left in the regular season and the wild-card round still to be seeded.

A quartet of teams — the Cleveland Guardians, White Sox, Cubs and San Diego Padres — punched postseason tickets Thursday, underscoring how tightly the late-September standings compressed across both leagues. Chicago’s celebration pairs a franchise milestone with an individual one: a second straight October berth, and a center fielder who joined one of baseball’s rarest power-speed clubs on the same night.