Jake Arrieta was all about dominance in his previous outing. He placed the baseball wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and held the Pittsburgh Pirates to one infield single over seven scoreless innings. In his follow-up performance Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies’ prized free-agent addition was all about perseverance. He overcame shoddy defense, a bases-loaded walk that led to him being booed, and the challenge of facing one of the game’s best pitchers in Arizona’s Zack Greinke.
It could easily be argued that this Arrieta performance was even better than the previous one, because he appeared to be spinning out of control as he encountered fourth-inning turbulence.