(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Tonight I boycotted a Lobo men’s soccer match against UCLA after work to sit through what might have been the final game of the season for the Cubs. I felt it was my duty to watch the game, despite the fact the Cubs were down 3-0 in a 4 game series to the Dodgers. The Dodgers this year look to me so much like the Cubs of last year- solid pitching up and down the innings, every guy hitting, a few heavy lifters regularly coming through, and an energy that looks a lot like winning. The Dodgers have their young guys contributing, along with a few old guys as well- just like the Cubs did last year.

Tonight, though, Jake Arrieta took the mound for the Cubs.

Jake’s a guy who joined the Cubs in 2013 after a mediocre stint in Baltimore. While with the Orioles, Jake was 20-25 over 3-plus seasons. His mechanics were funky and off in Baltimore, and being a perfectionist, he and his pitching coaches tinkered to try and figure them out for him. Jake was 3-9 in his last full year at Baltimore, sporting a 6.20 ERA over his 24 game appearances and 18 starts. He was struggling in 2012.

On July 2, 2013, though, he was traded to the Cubs with a reliever from the Orioles for two pitchers in return, and his reclamation process began.

In 2013, Jake finished the season at 4-2 for the Cubs in 9 starts.

In 2014, he went 10-5 for the Cubs in 25 starts, and his season ERA was 2.53.

And then there is 2015.

In 2015, Jake was a different pitcher altogether, going a gaudy 22-6 in 33 starts for the Cubs, and carrying a 1.77 ERA for the season, despite pitching 229 innings which led the majors in work. Jake’s WAR for 2015 was an ethereal 8.7 (an 8+ is usually attached to a league MVP, a 5+ to an All-Star, a 2+ to a regular starter on a team, from 0 to 2 to a sub, and less than 0 to called up replacement player), and it is no surprise that he ended up with the National League Cy Young award that season. He started the most games of any NL starter in the league that year, and pitched 4 complete games, 3 shutouts, and on August 30, 2015, he threw his first no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Dodgers.

Within 8 months, Jake would throw the second no-hitter of his career, on April 21, 2016, when the Cubs would torch the Cincinnati Reds 16-0. But above Jake standing out in 2016, the entire Cub roster was brilliant.

In 2016, Jake put together another beast of a year, going 18-8 with a 3.10 ERA over 31 starts and 197 innings. He joined 6 of his teammates as an All Star in July 2016, and helped carry the 2016 Cubs to their first World Series Championship in 108 years. Jake started and won 2 of the team’s 7 games in the World Series, and his hitting all season also won him a Silver Slugger award for being one of the best hitting pitchers in the National League.

This season, Jake has been a little quieter as he’s struggled with a few control issues and small injuries that impacted his 2017 campaign. Jake’s gone 14-10 with a 3.53 ERA over 30 starts and 168 innings. But he has remained good.

Which is why, at the end of this season, Arrieta is a free agent and looking to cash in on his reputation as a top-tier pitcher.

Which is why, after this season, he will probably be courted by another club with available cash needing such a pitcher who can outpay Chicago to have his services.

Which is why tonight’s game was must see for me.

Arrieta helped take these Cubs to get the trophy in 2016 because of his impressive and improving abilities in 2014 and 2015.

He’s created and commanded a lot of respect for his skills across major league baseball as a fierce battler on the mound.

He has also won a deep and unseverable affection within Cub Nation because of his pitching heroics and his leadership in fetching the 2016 crown.

If tonight Jake pitched his last game as a Cub, I am grateful I took the time to watch it. Jake is a guy worth watching on the mound. He is stoic and serious, hard-nosed and perfectionistic, competitive and committed.

Locally, we’d seen Jake before, when he played 2 years of college baseball at TCU.

In 2006, as a sophomore, he was tied for the lead nationally with 14 wins, and his Horned Frogs bested New Mexico for the MWC crown, and then that summer as an anchor guy on the Team USA club, he went 4-0 in six starts and gave up 1 earned run in 35 innings to carry a .27 ERA through the tournament, which Team USA won.

In 2007, Jake went 9-3 in 19 starts and his Horned Frogs went on to play in the NCAA Regionals.

Jake was a Mountain West First Team selection each of his two years at TCU before he want in the third round of the 2007 draft to the Baltimore Orioles.

So went Jake’s college career.

Tonight, Jake went 6 2/3 innings and 111 pitches and gave up 1 earned run, striking out 9, to propel the Cubs past the Dodgers 3-2 and to stave off an ending of the Cubs 2017 season for one more day.

Jake was classic Jake for the evening.

If you are gone next year, sir, you will always be a favorite Cub to me. You earned that.

Thanks for bringing your beard to grace the mound, and so many times, leaving a W on it when you came off of it.

You were a big reason why 2016 was historic for that organization, and the city of Chicago.