Jake Arrieta doesn’t need to give the Chicago Cubs more than 6 innings to be effective — but his inconsistency raises some concerns after a 5-2 loss to the New York Mets

When the Chicago Cubs signed right-hander Jake Arrieta in the offseason, they envisioned the veteran being a steady force in the rotation.

More than two months into their reunion, the Cubs have seen the good and bad from the 35-year-old former Cy Young Award winner. At his best, Arrieta limits the opposition to two runs or fewer over five or six innings, as he did in his five-inning, one-run outing last week in San Diego.

He hasn’t pitched more than six innings in any of his 13 starts this year, including a five-inning performance in Monday’s 5-2 loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field.

“He has high expectations for himself,” Cubs manager David Ross said Monday before Arrieta’s start. “We’ve seen him at his best. I’ve seen him at his best. I know we’ll get a version of that. I don’t know if it’s natural to expect everybody to be that great all the time — the memories I have in my head. But he expects that and that’s what we want.

“You’re going to get a good competitor every time out. You’re going to get a guy who’s going to give you a chance to win the baseball game. And that’s all we ask from any of our pitchers.”

The Cubs don’t need Arrieta to give them more than five to six innings for him to be effective in the rotation, though going deeper would help preserve their dominant bullpen. Like many pitchers around the league, Arrieta already has surpassed his innings total from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Some of those innings have been good for the Cubs; others raise concerns about how consistently effective Arrieta can be. His 2021 numbers aren’t helped by his two worst starts, which were marred by a cut on his right thumb in late April in Cincinnati (seven runs in 3⅓ innings) and a stomach bug two starts ago in San Francisco (six runs in two innings).

Without those two games, Arrieta’s ERA would be 3.59, even after he surrendered four runs in Monday’s loss.

“That’s the thing about Jake, he’s proven he’s battle-tested,” Ross said pregame. “He’s not going to shy away from the moment. So if he’s going to go out there and compete even if he has 70% of his stuff, he’s going to be able to give us a decent outing.”

When Arrieta loses his command, though, things can derail quickly, as they did in the fourth inning Monday.

Too many pitches were balls out of his hand, allowing Mets hitters to sit on pitches in the zone. A scoreless game quickly turned into a three-run advantage for the Mets. The Cubs couldn’t get going against Mets starter David Peterson and saw their five-game winning streak snapped.

Arrieta almost got through the fourth without damage. But with two outs and a runner on first, the next four Mets reached to bring home three runs. Dominic Smith took Arrieta deep for a solo homer in the fifth, and Brandon Drury’s RBI pinch-hit single off reliever Tommy Nance in the sixth added to the Cubs’ deficit.

“I had multiple opportunities to get out of the fourth unscathed,” Arrieta said. “The damage was done with two outs. Some of it was self-inflicted.

“Started out feeling great, felt in control throughout the game. A couple walks in there were unnecessary. ... Didn’t do a good enough job with two outs limiting damage, could have gotten out of the inning with only allowing one run and wasn’t able to do that. Should have been able to pitch deeper in the game.”

The Cubs finally got going against the Mets bullpen. Anthony Rizzo and Patrick Wisdom hit back-to-back homers off reliever Trevor May in the seventh, but the final eight Cubs hitters were retired after the home runs.

Although it wasn’t always pretty, Arrieta’s five innings were welcome given the upcoming slate of starters. Right-hander Alec Mills takes the mound Tuesday, having appeared in only one game in the past week since coming off the injured list. He has pitched three or more innings only twice in 13 appearances, and those came in mid-April. Wednesday’s starter is still to be determined, and it could be a bullpen-heavy game.

The Cubs know what they have in Arrieta, and for a rotation still trying to get on a roll, starts like Monday’s, even with a bad inning, can help in the big picture.

The loss, however, sets up a challenging path to salvaging the series in New York, which requires going through Mets starters Taijuan Walker, Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman.

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