Coming into yesterday’s start against the Giants, new Phillies righty Jake Arrieta had a sparkling 2.16 ERA in his debut season after parting with the Cubs. His peripherals were more mundane (among them, a well below average 17.2% strikeout rate, and only so-so 8.2% walk rate), but we know that Arrieta is an excellent contact manager, so there’s no huge surprise there so long as he has an effective defense behind him.
Well, yesterday, Arrieta gave up eight hits and five earned runs over six innings to balloon that ERA to 2.66, and he was not happy about it. Not so much about his own performance, mind you, but about the way things played out behind him. And his comments were surprisingly biting for a guy on a new team.
“We’ve had bad defensive shifts. We had a checked swing, [and shortstop Scott] Kingery should’ve gone to second on that play. And they got three hits in a row. The home run – credit [Andrew] McCutchen for putting a good swing on it, but did not expect a ball like that to get out …. Overall, it’s just a really horse s— series. Really bad.”
Arrieta went on to say that the Phillies are the worst in the league at defensive shifting, and they need an accountability check.
Jake Arrieta described himself as furious, said Phillies defensive shifts are worst in the league. "We need to change that. Copy the best. That's not my job." Said needs to be accountability check "top to bottom," after "horse-bleep" series.
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) June 3, 2018
He hopes they can get “back in the right mindset to play a good team at Wrigley Field.”
The Phillies come to Chicago to face the Cubs after today’s off-day, and perhaps Arrieta is extra chapped that they’ll do so cold, and without him on the mound to pitch against his old team.
Arrieta was always a guy who was willing to speak his mind, sharply critical when appropriate (mostly of himself), and doling out praise where earned. I can’t say I recall him sounding quite like this in his time with the Cubs, though.
Based on his results so far this year, the Cubs are arguably fortunate not to face Arrieta in this series. Moreover, knowing how he always seemed to get up for the biggest moments, Arrieta probably would have been at the tip top of his game to face his old team – the team that wouldn’t quite step up with an offer he believed was sufficient to keep him around. Nevertheless, I kinda still wish he was pitching in this series, just so we could see the spectacle of it. That would have been quite a moment.