In first road start at Wrigley, Phils’ Jake Arrieta reminds Cubs how it was — and could’ve been

Jake Arrieta was in no rush to enter the batter’s box in the third inning of Monday’s 5-4, 10-inning Phillies victory at Wrigley Field, and who could blame him? He was having his long-awaited moment with the denizens of the ballpark of his glory. A final moment before “he’s one of us” could become, more clearly and permanently, “he’s one of them.”

Cubs fans rose to their feet and cheered loudly as Arrieta strided toward home plate. Stopping short of the box, Arrieta took a trip around Wrigley with his eyes, acknowledging fans in each part of the park, before doffing his red batting helmet.

On the mound taking it in stood Yu Darvish, the big-ticket free agent who essentially replaced Arrieta after the 2017 season. Maybe someday Darvish will be on the receiving end of such warmth from the folks at Wrigley. Maybe not.

“It felt great,” said Arrieta, who pitched six innings, allowing one run, and got a no-decision. “Kind of something that I experienced pretty much from Day 1 here with the fan base. Cubs fans all across the country, all across the world, they really respect and appreciate what guys are able to do for them.

“It means a lot, it really does. I’ll never forget this city, the fan base, the organization and everything that they did for me. It was 4½ incredible years of my career.”

There are those who wonder why Arrieta, 33, no longer pitches for the Cubs. Why the team decided a pitcher with a 30-14 record and a 2.31 ERA entering Monday no longer fit their plans. Why a Cy Young winner, a World Series champion and the author of the Cubs’ last two no-hitters wasn’t worth believing in.

But there is no question whatsoever about what Arrieta meant to the Cubs as they rose to the mountaintop. He was their engine in 2015, driving them past the Pirates in a wild-card game and all the way to the NLCS. He was an All-Star and won both his World Series starts in 2016. He was good again in 2017 as the Cubs returned to the NLCS and — in his final outing with the team — beat the Dodgers to stave off elimination.

“This city adores him for that,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. “And I think he wants to perform for the Philadelphia Phillies, but also to show everybody that he is still capable of greatness.”

Arrieta distanced himself from the story line that he was going head-to-head against Darvish and packing a message to send to his former employers. Instead, he threw postgame bouquets.

“Brings back a lot of memories of what we were able to do as a team, from [2013] all the way through ’17,” he said.

It wasn’t vintage Arrieta the Cubs would see, but that old, familiar toughness on the mound was there as he escaped bases-loaded jams with no damage in the second and fifth innings. The only run the Cubs could muster against him came on an Anthony Rizzo base hit. Something about that — two respected veterans doing business together — seemed almost perfect.

If Arrieta — who signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the Phillies — pens a second World Series chapter in his career, he could be viewed in Philadelphia as much as Jon Lester is viewed here. When the Cubs signed Lester after the 2014 season, it signaled the end of tanking with the arrival of an established star pitcher and world champion. Arrieta was that same sort of figure for the Phillies, whose own rebuilding period ended as soon as he signed on the dotted line.

Ask any Cubs pitcher who leads the current staff, and he’ll say Lester. As the Phillies the same question, and they’ll say it’s the guy who called out superstar right fielder Bryce Harper early this season for getting himself ejected from a game.

But the cheers for Arrieta — the loud, emotional ones — will have to come in Philly from here on out. He’s one of theirs now. He’s one of them.