Arrieta will face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the win or go home wild card game in Pittsburgh on Wednesday Oct. 7. In response to Pittsburgh gaining home field advantage, Arrieta tweeted “Whatever helps you keep your hope alive, just know, it doesn’t matter.”

This high stakes game will “give him his first chance to prove himself as a truly established Ace pitcher in this league” Palatine High School junior Megan Breytenbach said.

Jake Arrieta was acquired in 2013 in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles. Arrieta, a struggling 27 year old pitcher with a 5.46 ERA and shoulder tenderness, was expected to live out the rest of his days as the third or fourth pitcher of a mediocre starting rotation and not expected to make more than 20 starts in a season.

However this season, Arrietta has been one of the most effective pitchers in baseball. With the most wins of any Major League pitcher (22) and the only pitcher this season to reach the milestone 20 win mark. Arrieta, although a late bloomer by most standards has proved that, despite age, a pitcher that can regain solid mechanics and control over his pitches can be dominant in a league where velocity and power seems to be overtaking finesse and precision.

The Cubs outlook on Arrieta was a bit foggy at the end of the 2014 season. He had showed flashes of brilliance in the latter half of the year, but nothing that was consistently dominant. He had a strong start to the 2015 season, quickly piling a few wins on his record and giving the Cubs a chance to win. However it was after the all-star break that Arrieta began his record setting second half and established himself as a truly dominant pitcher and perhaps the best of the 2015 season.

Arrieta’s historic second half looks like this: 20 consecutive quality starts to bump teammate John Lester (19) out of first place on the all-time list placing him in the company of Greg Maddux and Tom Seaver who make up the third and fourth place spots with 17 and 16 quality starts respectively, .75 ERA which is the lowest for the second half this season (the next lowest second half ERA is nearly double that), a no-hitter, since Aug. 1, he allowed only 16 “hard hit balls” in 12 starts and an opposing hitter batting average of .149 which is just slightly over half the major league average. Also, he has hit as many home runs as he has allowed (three) dating back to June 21.

Arrieta has a large five pitch arsenal of a fastball, hard slider, biting curveball, cutter, and a changeup. A larger array of pitches than most pitchers choose to throw but it works to his advantage as he is impressively able to locate all his pitches in any count and keep hitters guessing as to what pitches he is throwing.