Arrieta's wild ride has been catalyst during Cubs' surge
The very peculiar onesie Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta wore after completing the first no-hitter of his career has a story that comes full circle to Sunday night's greatness at Dodger Stadium.
Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Sullivan told the story: One night in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2014, while Arrieta was rehabbing a shoulder injury in the minor leagues, he happened upon a clothing boutique and noticed this strange outfit with mustaches all over it.
According to Sullivan, Arrieta knew right then that "at some point I would need to wear that."
That night was after Arrieta's gem, a 2-0 no-hitter thrown against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a game that solidified him among the game's elite pitchers this season and elevated him to ace status with the Cubs.
After the game, he and his teammates all wore silly pajamas for the flight out of L.A. back to Chicago.
"Yesterday just happened to be the perfect moment for it," Arrieta said Monday night at Wrigley Field where the Cubs quickly crashed from Cloud 9 in a lopsided loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
The Cubs acquired Arrieta in a trade from Baltimore on July 2, 2013 to little, or no, fanfare. And why should there have been? He was 20-25 with an ERA that hadn't quite reached 6.00 in four seasons with the Orioles.
This season has been a total revelation. He's 17-6 with a 2.11 ERA. He's had a brilliant August and has to be near the top of the list of Cy Young candidates.
His gem Sunday night stopped a four-game skid, a much-needed victory considering Chicago lost again Monday as things have suddenly taken a bit of a dip from an otherwise torrid August.
"From day one I knew I could pitch like this my whole career," Arrieta, who pitched at TCU, told the Tribune. "I did it in college, I did it in the minor leagues and I did it in the big leagues at times. So I knew there were some adjustments in there, mentally and physically, that needed to be made. And I knew once I was able to get over that hump that things would eventually work themselves out.
"The work ethic was there. I had to cut some things out. I was trying to do too much. Just so many variables in there that needed to be rearranged, some taken out. But I knew that I would be here one day."
(h/t Chicago Tribune)
