Written by Ian Casselberry at Bloguin
If the Chicago Cubs got to the postseason a year earlier than ultimately expected, they looked especially precocious during Wednesday’s 4-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Wild Card Game. A young team that developed quickly accelerated the plans in Wrigleyville, helped largely by Jake Arrieta pitching like the ace he’s been all season.
But winning a one-game playoff and entering a best-of-five series against the rival Cardinals, with all of the postseason experience and tradition they boast, is a formidable task to overcome. As impressive as the Cubs looked on Wednesday, one game doesn’t answer several questions that still linger going into Friday’s NLDS Game 1.
Is Jake Arrieta this year’s Madison Bumgarner?
This seemed to come up quite a bit on Twitter during Wednesday night’s victory. Just like the San Francisco Giants’ left-hander did last season, Arrieta shut out the Pirates to win the Wild Card playoff and put the Cubs into the Division Series. The question now is whether or not Arrieta can carry the Cubs as far as Bumgarner did during last year’s postseason.
Bumgarner set quite a bar for anyone else to reach with his performance, allowing a total of six earned runs in 52.2 innings during the Giants’ run to a championship. He started two games in the NLCS versus the Cardinals and made three appearances against the Royals in the World Series, including a Game 7 relief stint in which he pitched five scoreless innings.
Arrieta will likely only get to pitch one game in the NLDS since he had to start the Wild Card game and probably won’t be available until Monday’s Game 3. So to put together a dominant postseason, his team will have to give him an opportunity to pitch twice in the NLCS by advancing past the Cardinals. Obviously, Arrieta’s performance in Game 3 could be pivotal in how the series plays out.
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