Watch CBS News

Dunlap: Arrieta Won't Be Only Ace In Wild Card Game

It isn't that I'm tired of hearing about Cubs starter Jake Arrieta.

How can you be?

The guy is incredibly nasty with exceptional stuff and the 20-game winner is in the midst of a stretch where he has 18 consecutive quality starts.

That's Superman stuff, it really is; stuff of legend right there.

But as we all seem destined at 100 miles per hour for a Wild Card Game --- and most likely at PNC Park --- between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, Oct. 7, it feels as if the narrative has spun heavily toward "HOW IN THE WORLD WILL THE PIRATES EVER BE ABLE TO BEAT JAKE ARRIETA?!?!?!"

It is a fair question, as the Pirates are hitting just .173 against Arrieta this season. In four games and 29 innings pitched against the Bucs, he's given up just three earned runs while striking out 24.

Again, real good stuff.

But I don't get all the panic setting in. I don't get all the fright, fear, anxiety and foreboding tone of any of this --- it isn't like the Pirates are going to counter with (although he once struck out Joey Votto) Travis Snider on the mound in that Wild Card Game.

As we roll toward that Wild Card Game, does it feel to you that not enough people are asking, "Don't you think the Cubs could have a really hard time getting to Gerrit Cole?"

It sure feels that way to me. Just as much as Arrieta is a story; equally, if you're the Cubs and manager Joe Maddon, how on Earth could you feel confident about heading into a one-game proposition knowing the man standing 60-feet, 6-inches away is Gerrit Cole?

To me at least, that's just as much of a story as how good Jake Arrieta has been and could be. And it is a story that not enough people are yakking about; how good Gerrit Cole has been and could be.

Cole is 10-2 in games in his career that he's pitched that have been in the months of September and October.

That's gritting it at crunch time.

In those 15 games, Cole has a 3.10 ERA in a little more than 95 innings and has struck out 110 batters. In his most striking statistic in games he has pitched in September and October, Cole's strikeouts per nine innings number spikes to 10.3 while it isn't higher than 9.2 in any other month in the season.

In addition, the numbers yield that Cole doesn't give up the longball in games in September and October, as he's allowed just four home runs in 377 plate appearances in such at-bats.

Long story short, Gerrit Cole is toughest when the going gets toughest.

On top of all of this, Cole is 6-1 in his career in his eight starts against the Chicago Cubs and has struck out an eye-popping 61 batters in 49.1 innings against that club.

And there's one more thing that cannot be quantified: That PNC Park crowd.

If that Wild Card Game works out to be Arrieta v. Cole and it is at PNC Park, I challenge anyone to find a more football-like, raucous, rough and loud bunch of baseball rooters jammed inside a stadium for the playoffs.

You won't.

Ask Johnny Cueto if that Pittsburgh postseason crowd can impact your focus and, by extension, performance. I bet if Cueto was 100 percent honest, he could give one hell of an answer.

So as we race toward what feels like the inevitable --- a matchup of Cole and Arrieta in a Wild Card Game at PNC Park --- some can talk all they want about the uphill proposition the Pirates will face.

But in doing that, don't forget it won't be some walk in the park to be the Cubs that day; because Gerrit Cole is far from a slouch.

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.