Cubs clinch 2nd straight playoffs trip by beating Marlins 2-1 as Crow-Armstrong joins 40-40 club

CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong joined the 40-40 club by stealing his 40th base to go along with his major league-leading 45 home runs, and the Chicago Cubs clinched their second straight postseason berth a 2-1 victory over the Miami Marlins on Thursday.

Seiya Suzuki homered for the Cubs (88-71), who assured themselves of one of the NL's three wild card berths.

Chicago also was a wild card last year, when the Cubs beat San Diego in the first round and lost to Milwaukee in a Division Series. The Cubs will be making consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since four straight from 2015-18, which in 2016 included their first championship since 1908.

The Cubs clinched their berth shortly after the White Sox earned their postseason trip with a 9-1 win at Kansas City.

Miami (78-81) was assured its third straight non-winning season.

A favorite to win the NL MVP award, Crow-Armstrong became the seventh 40-40 player, joining a group that includes Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. Jose Canseco was the first with the 1988 Oakland Athletics.

Crow-Armstrong hit his 45th homer during Sunday’s 9-1 win at Cincinnati, extending his career high. The 24-year-old drew a leadoff walk from Tyler Phillips in the first inning and swiped second base on the next pitch to Suzuki for his 40th steal in 47 attempts. Fans chanted “MVP” as the Wrigley Field videoboard proclaimed the feat.

Ohtani was the previous player with a 40-40 season, hitting 54 homers and stealing 59 bases for the 2024 Dodgers. Acuña hit 41 homers and swiped 73 bases for Atlanta in 2023. Alfonso Soriano (2006 with Washington), Alex Rodriguez (1998 with Seattle) and Barry Bonds (1996 with San Francisco) are the other 40-40 players.

Matthew Boyd (10-5) allowed one run, five hits and two walks over seven innings, and Ryan Zeferjahn pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save to finish a five-hitter.

Ian Happ tripled off Jack Ralston (0-2) to start the sixth and came home three pitches later on Nico Hoerner’s single, breaking a 1-1 tie.

Miami’s Jakob Marsee had an RBI single in the third and Suzuki hit his 26th homer in the fifth, a drive off Jack Ralston.

The Marlins return to Miami on Friday to begin a season-ending, three-game series against Atlanta.

The Cubs play a day-night doubleheader Friday at Boston. The opener was shifted to Sunday by Major League Baseball because of a forecast for a storm.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Chicago Cubs' Seiya Suzuki celebrates his home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Thursday , Sept. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Chicago Cubs' Ian Happ celebrates after scoring on Nico Hoerner's RBI single during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Thursday , Sept. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Chicago Cubs' Carson Kelly, left, and Ryan Zeferjahn (56) celebrate after a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong raises his helmet to the crowd after stealing second base for his 40th steal of the season during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Thursday , Sept. 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Residents along Mexico’s west coast stacked sandbags to fortify beachfront shops and evacuated their homes, while Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui braced for potentially catastrophic flooding, as two separate storms swirled in the Pacific on Thursday.

Heavy rains from powerful Hurricane Polo could cause life-threatening flooding and landslides in Mexico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. In places like the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, seawater swept through homes Thursday and left wooden planks and furniture strewn on the streets.

Polo has gone back and forth between Category 4 and 5, both major-hurricane strength. The strongest winds were expected to remain offshore as the storm’s center skirts the coast before moving out to sea. But Polo was forecast to hook back toward Mexico’s coast farther north on Saturday.

Far off the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, Tropical Storm Nolo was gathering strength, and forecasters expect it to become a hurricane soon. Hawaii is likely to see heavy rains starting late Thursday and winds reaching hurricane levels by early Saturday. Nolo could dump more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain across islands still recovering from a string of storms.

The series of powerful storms comes as the weather phenomenon El Niño prompts major environmental shifts across the world, fueling drought in some areas and flooding in others. El Niño traditionally dampens the Atlantic hurricane season, while it tends to rev up tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific with moist air and little wind shear.

Hawaii has been battered this year by major flooding in the spring, an earthquake and two other hurricanes since mid-August.

“In my 20 years of experience here, I’ve never seen three hurricane watches for the islands in the same year,” said John Bravender of the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

Mexican authorities were opening shelters and clearing people from beaches, while coastal residents tried to protect businesses from getting swept away. People in high-risk areas were being evacuated, though authorities didn’t immediately say how many.

Much of the worry from locals comes from hurricanes in past years that devastated cities along the Pacific coast. Hurricane Otis in 2023 unexpectedly plunged Acapulco into turmoil for weeks.

“So many people said it wouldn’t happen and then it did. After that, you’re left on edge,” said Gonzalo Ramírez, a bartender in the city.

Polo posed the biggest threat to Guerrero and Michoacán, neighboring states in southwest Mexico that share a long coastline scattered with small ports, tourist towns and fishing villages. Much of the area is marked by poverty, and residents routinely complain they are left to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

Mexican authorities have deployed 15,000 security personnel across the coast and suspended schools.

In Lázaro Cárdenas, a port city in Michoacán that was hit with high surf, locals and government officials were clearing out piles of wooden planks from a number of destroyed ramadas and shoveling thick mud coating much of the town.

Alicia Contreras said the walls and roof of her restaurant had been severely damaged by 15-foot (4.5-meter) waves. As officers and family helped pick through the damaged house, Contreras worried how she would economically recover.

“This is huge because we have no other source of income. Now we’re just surviving,” Contreras said.

Forecasters said Tropical Storm Nolo might grow into a major hurricane and could drop 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain on the Big Island, with even higher amounts possible through Saturday.

The island of Maui could also be hit with life-threatening floods and mudslides, the hurricane center said.

While the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of the storm, its full path remains uncertain, according to Bravender, the weather service's warning coordination meteorologist in Hawaii.

Most concerning, he said Thursday, is that the heaviest rain is likely to fall over the same southeastern region of the Big Island hit in August by Hurricane Lala and where grounds are still wet from additional precipitation.

“There are several communities that were isolated, flooded, roads that were washed out,” he said. “It’s that same area that is most under threat,” Bravender said.

Hawaii officials told residents to put together emergency kits and the governor issued an emergency proclamation, activating more than 230 Hawaii National Guard members. Schools were closed for the rest of the week.

Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews that had been helping restore power in Kauai after this month’s Hurricane Lowell would return to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island in preparation for the coming storm.

A third storm in the Pacific, Hurricane Odalys, was centered far from land roughly 1,110 miles (1,785 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

In the northern Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Fay re-formed early Thursday, the U.S. hurricane center said. It was nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the Azores.

Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Jeriel Vargas Ambriz in Lázaro Cárdena, Mexico, contributed.

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Nolo, left, south of Hawaii; Hurricane Odalys, middle, and Hurricane Polo, right, off the coast of Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo moving away from the southwestern coast of Mexico on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Nolo in the Pacific Ocean, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Odalys in the Pacific Ocean, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo strengthening in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (NOAA via AP)