Like a good neighbor, my foot. I don’t know whether Jake Arrieta was mimicking his skipper’s Spring Training approach or simply test-driving his Jason Hammel Halloween costume Wednesday night, but it wasn’t fun to watch. Even worse, it wasn’t really an aberration.
While the 7 earned runs on 10 hits over 5 innings wasn’t his worst outing in a Cubs uniform (6 ER in 4 IP 8/21/13 vs. Washington; same line 8/28/14 at Cincy; 9 ER in 5 IP at Colorado 8/6/14), it was easily the ugliest he’s produced in the last two seasons. And it came in his final start of the regular season, immediately following an excellent outing against the Cardinals in which he’d gone 7 strong with 10 strikeouts and no runs allowed.