CINCINNATI — Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Chicago Cubs entered Saturday with two races converging at once: one involving a historically productive individual season, and another involving a postseason berth that is still not secure. The Cubs fell 6-4 to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, dropping to 85-69 and leaving Chicago tied with the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres for the three National League wild-card positions. Arizona remained five games behind that group with eight games left on Chicago’s schedule.

For Crow-Armstrong, Friday was one of the quieter nights in a season defined by extraordinary production. Batting first and playing center field, he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts as Cincinnati’s pitching staff kept him off the bases. His batting average fell to .280 and his OPS to .948. The Cubs still generated nine hits, including three from Michael Conforto, an Ian Happ home run and a two-run Seiya Suzuki single, but Cincinnati erased a 4-3 Chicago lead and held on.

The result underscored the central challenge of the Cubs’ final week: Crow-Armstrong can dramatically change games, but even an MVP-caliber player cannot carry a postseason race alone. Chicago’s magic number to secure a playoff berth remained four after the loss. The Cubs have built a strong overall season and entered the weekend with one of the National League’s better run differentials, but their margin over the teams outside the playoff field has narrowed enough that the remaining schedule still matters.

Only two nights earlier, Crow-Armstrong had delivered the kind of performance that explains why his season has become one of baseball’s defining stories. In an 8-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field, he went 3-for-4 with two home runs, a triple, three RBIs and three runs scored. His first homer of the night was his 43rd of the season, moving him beyond Hall of Famer Billy Williams for the most home runs by a left-handed hitter in a single Cubs season. Williams hit 42 in 1970.

Crow-Armstrong’s RBI triple later in the game gave him 81 extra-base hits, also surpassing Williams’ 1970 total of 80 for the Cubs’ single-season record by a left-handed batter. Crow-Armstrong then added his 44th home run, completing his seventh multi-homer game of the season. The production has arrived without sacrificing the speed that initially made him such an unusual player: he entered the Cincinnati series with 37 stolen bases.

That combination has put another landmark within reach. Three more steals would give Crow-Armstrong a 40-homer, 40-steal season. MLB.com noted after Wednesday’s victory that it would be only the seventh 40-40 season in major-league history. No Cubs player has previously reached both thresholds in the same year. For a center fielder whose early major-league reputation was built substantially around speed and defense, the transformation into a middle-of-the-order-caliber power threat has changed the dimensions of Chicago’s lineup.

The surge has not been confined to September. Crow-Armstrong was named the National League Player of the Month for August after hitting 14 home runs, the most in the majors during the month, while posting a 1.069 OPS. It was his second NL Player of the Month award of the season after also receiving the honor for June. MLB said he became the first Cubs player to win the award multiple times in the same season since the honor was established in 1973.

That sustained production has kept Crow-Armstrong prominent in the NL MVP discussion while the Cubs have moved from chasing Milwaukee in the division to protecting a wild-card position. Milwaukee has already secured the NL Central, eliminating that route to October. The Cubs’ task is therefore more straightforward and more urgent: finish strongly enough to remain among the league’s three wild-card teams, while potentially improving their seeding and their chance to host a Wild Card Series.

Chicago’s loss Friday also illustrated how narrow the separation can be. The Cubs led 4-3 before Cincinnati rallied, with Eugenio Suárez tying the game and Jose Trevino supplying the decisive two-run single. Chicago still brought the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, but the game ended after Michael Busch was caught stealing second. It was the Cubs’ second loss in three games, preventing them from creating additional separation in a race that now has Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego sharing identical 85-69 records.

The Cubs have reasons to believe their lineup can respond. Crow-Armstrong is surrounded by veteran hitters including Alex Bregman, Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki, while Dansby Swanson returned from the injured list Friday. Bregman has been particularly productive in the second half and nearly hit for the cycle in Wednesday’s victory over Atlanta. That support matters because opponents entering a postseason series would have little incentive to give Crow-Armstrong favorable pitches if Chicago cannot consistently punish them elsewhere in the order.

Still, Crow-Armstrong is the player who has most dramatically altered the Cubs’ ceiling. His power has turned routine plate appearances into home-run threats, his speed creates pressure once he reaches base, and his range in center field adds value independent of his offensive production. The cumulative effect is why a single 0-for-5 game does little to change the larger picture of his season. What it does change, however, is the immediate urgency facing Chicago.

The Cubs continue their series in Cincinnati on Saturday with left-hander Matthew Boyd scheduled to face Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo. After Cincinnati, Chicago’s remaining regular-season schedule includes a home series against Miami and a closing road series in Boston. There are few opportunities left to recover from dropped games. Crow-Armstrong has already produced the statistical foundation of a season that will occupy a significant place in Cubs history. The final question is whether Chicago can make sure that season extends into October.