Just like old times
Jake Arrieta pitches 6 innings and earns win in his return to Wrigley
In the days leading up to his start Saturday, Jake Arrieta spent time riding his scooter around Chicago visiting familiar spots and being recognized by Cubs fans.
He embraced that environment during his first stint with the organization, getting out around the city and interacting with fans, even if those conversations were brief. Those special moments carried over onto the field Saturday during his first start at Wrigley Field in nearly 3 ½ years. Even with the limited-capacity crowd of 10,343, Arrieta felt the electricity when the took the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Arrieta labored through the first inning, needing 25 pitches to escape — giving up a run in the process — and trending toward a short season debut. But a strikeout looking against Gregory Polanco to strand runners on the corners got Arrieta on track.
That started a stretch in which he retired 11 of the next 13 batters he faced en route to a six-inning outing in a 5-1 victory, their first of the season. Arrieta, 35, allowed only one run on six hits.
“It was just like I remembered it,” Arrieta said afterward. “A little jittery to start but a great day nonetheless.”
Saturday’s start represented Arrieta’s first at Wrigley as a Cub since Oct. 18, 2017, in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He settled down after surviving the first inning, needing only 59 more pitches to get through the next five innings.
Arrieta’s performance was particularly encouraging because of how he utilized his repertoire. Arrieta found success despite an ineffective cutter, heavily relying on his fastball and curveball. He didn’t throw any changeups, a pitch that accounted for 17.1% of his usage in 2020 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Arrieta said they identified early on that his cutter wasn’t moving like they wanted it to. The game plan was adjusted.
“Without (my changeup), being able to do what I did is good moving forward,” Arrieta said. “Sometimes you’re going to have days like that where you don’t have one of your pitches and you have to rely on a couple of the other ones. I made it work.”
Arrieta wasn’t crisp in the first inning but as he got dialed in, executing his fastball down in the zone and mixing in his curveball helped him find a rhythm. He recorded three of his five strikeouts and generated six swinging strikes with the curveball. Arrieta views the pitch as a great weapon and believes it plays just as good as anybody’s in the league when he’s throwing it well.
“I’m comfortable pitching in this ballpark, even with the wind blowing out and it kind of plays in my favor,” Arrieta said. “The opposing lineup tends to look at the flags and see the wind is blowing out and account for that and try to do damage. My job is to execute down in the strike zone with my movement and use their aggressiveness against them. That worked out today.”
With Arrieta back pitching for the Cubs, it conjured fond memories for those who had been around him during his first five years with the team. Facing the Pirates reminded third baseman Kris Bryant of watching Arrieta shut them down with a complete-game shutout in the 2015 NL wild-card game.
“Today was pretty special to get Jake back out here with his attitude, his mindset,” outfielder Jason Heyward said. “As soon as he walks in the door on his day to pitch, he’s not uptight guy. He’s loose, he wants everybody to be comfortable and come out and have fun and compete.
“He wasn’t really shaken by giving up a run early. He really gave us a chance as an offense to come out and put something together.”
Arrieta pitched with a lead most of the game thanks to the Cubs offense bouncing back from a two-hit performance on opening day.
They erased the Pirates’ 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Jake Marisnick hit an RBI single to right to score Javier Baez, who put himself in scoring position by stealing second and third. Marisnick would score later in the inning on David Bote’s sacrifice fly to put the Cubs ahead.
“Javy’s chaos, man,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “When he gets out there, he’s fun to watch. He’s a fun, exciting player. He feeds off the crowd. They feed off, we feed off him. He’s a spark plug when he gets going.”
Bryant and Heyward hit the Cubs’ first home runs of the season. Bryant jumped on a fastball down the middle from Pirates starter Tyler Anderson, depositing it in the center-field basket in the third. It was the first time he hit a home run in front of his son, Kyler, whom he pointed to after crossing the plate.
“He probably didn’t know what was going on yet but he got a foul today, which is pretty cool,” Bryant said. “He grabbed it and put it right in his mouth, like they do with everything.”
Heyward hit a no-doubter to right field in the sixth. Baez tacked on an insurance run in the seventh with a two-strike RBI single to extend the Cubs’ lead 5-1. In his season debut, right-hander Craig Kimbrel struck out the side looking in the ninth in a nonsave opportunity.
While Kimbrel’s performance was notable, included sitting at 96 mph, Arrieta’s performance highlights how the Cubs can find success behind a rotation that doesn’t boast flashy stuff. Arrieta threw only one pitch faster than 92 mph, and that came on the third pitch of the game (93 mph). He didn’t need his pitches to be their best to get outs. If Arrieta consistently can give the Cubs quality starts, it will lessen the stress on the offense and won’t regularly tax the bullpen.
“I had to make big pitches in key situations in the game,” Arrieta said. “I was able to do that, and that’s what it takes at this level to not only get out of big situations but to preserve your pitch count and try and push deep into the game.”