Jake Arrieta suffers first loss as Chicago Cubs fall 3-2 vs D’backs

After taking the first two games of this weekend set from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs had the opportunity to complete the sweep on Sunday. Like Arrieta’s previous outing against the Dodgers, they were unable to pick up the victory.

Well, we all knew this was going to happen sooner or later. For the first time since July 25, 2015, Chicago Cubs’ ace right-hander Jake Arrieta was handed his first regular season loss at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arrieta (9-1, 1.80 ERA) had the strikeout pitch working for him through five innings of work but Arizona managed to push across three runs on nine hits and one walk before skipper Joe Maddon opted to remove him from the ballgame.

Not only did Jake record 12 strikeouts on the afternoon but he even helped out his own cause by recording an RBI on a fly ball to center field, scoring Miguel Montero.

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Arrieta’s first double of the season cut Arizona’s (25-34) lead down to just one. Remember, Jake hammered a no-doubter in his first meeting with the D’backs back in April. A home run that traveled well over 440 ft to left-center field.

During the top of the second inning, outfielder Yasmany Tomas picked up his 12th double of the campaign to score both Chris Herrmann and Chris Owings to grab an early 2-0 lead over Chicago’s ace.

The Cubs (39-16) had to deal with 26-year-old southpaw, Patrick Corbin, who was putting together a quality start for the visiting team. Corbin (3-5, 4.73 ERA) held the first-place Cubbies to two earned runs on five hits, zero walks, and five punchouts in seven innings of work.

Utility man, Javier Baez, who started the afternoon at third base, took Corbin deep on the first pitch of his at-bat during the home half of the sixth inning which cut the lead down to just one.

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Baez finished the day 1-for-3 at the dish, leaving two runners left on base. We’ll backtrack to the fifth inning where Corbin opened up the frame with a single left fielder Jorge Soler only to be caught trying to steal second base by Montero.

Center fielder Michael Bourn followed that up with a single of his own and later came around to score on an RBI base knock off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt wrapped the series for a combined 2-for-9 in the batters box.