NL MVP candidates Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong put on epic duel in series finale

CHICAGO — Two weeks ago, Dave Roberts was declarative.Shohei Ohtani, he said then, “is going to be the MVP of the National League.”By Wednesday morning, however, the Dodgers manager sounded less sure.While Ohtani remains one of the best hitters in baseball, his inability to pitch lately has opened the door to a potentially competitive MVP race.And the player who has stepped right through it: Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who staged an epic duel with Ohtani in the Cubs’ 7-6 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday at Wrigley Field.“He’s having a heck of a year,” Roberts said of Crow-Armstrong pregame.“He has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected.”Indeed, as the Cubs completed a series sweep that sent the Dodgers to a season-worst sixth straight defeat, the two superstar sluggers went back-and-forth with heavyweight blows.Ohtani led off the top of the first with his 25th home run of the season.

Crow-Armstrong then did the same in the bottom half of the frame to match that total.Crow-Armstrong then followed with an RBI double in the second, punctuating a two-run rally, and another two-run home run in the fourth, helping push the Cubs to what became a 7-1 lead.Ohtani, however, wasn’t done, either, recording his own multi-homer game with an opposite-field two-run blast in the eighth that — after Max Muncy had hit a three-run bomb earlier in the inning — brought the Dodgers back within a run before their wild comeback bid fell narrowly short.“I guess today for me, what was cool was just getting to watch him from a different angle,” said Crow-Armstrong, who got a rare start as designated hitter that allowed him to study Ohtani’s swing from up close. “I do think they were going toe to toe,” Roberts added.“Obviously, there’s a lot of talk about those two guys being the front-runners for the MVP.

And they both showed up.You can see that they hear what’s being said about them.

And that was fun for the...