Jake Arrieta: Willson Contreras' 'We're Back' Comment Reflects Cubs' Collective Attitude
(CBS) After two days of debate over whether the Cubs are "back" as catcher Willson Contreras proclaimed Sunday after Chicago won its third of four straight games, right-hander Jake Arrieta wanted to make something clear Tuesday.
The author of those comments represents the attitude of the team collectively.
"He's just kind of reverberating something that we've said amongst ourselves as players for quite some time now," Arrieta said in an interview with Dan Bernstein and Jason Goff on 670 The Score on Tuesday afternoon.
"I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but at the same time, it's an exciting time for this team."
The defending champion Cubs limped into the All-Star break at 43-45 and with a blowout loss to the Pirates. Since then, they've acquired left-hander Jose Quintana in a blockbuster trade with the White Sox and reeled off four straight wins to start the second half. The Cubs are 3.5 games behind the NL Central-leading Brewers entering play Tuesday night.
It's left them with plenty of confidence and talking about a hot-button modern-era term -- "back."
"We'll lose a couple games, then we'll have a guy like (Kyle) Schwarber or (Anthony) Rizzo who might've hit a skid or KB (Kris Bryant), whoever it is, then they hit a big home run, they cross the plate, they come in the dugout and we say, 'Hey, we're back. The Cubs are back,'" Arrieta said.
"It's just kind of something we've been saying. I think it's a great time for Willson to come out and say it publicly and to kind of let people know, 'Yeah, this potentially could be the very move that puts us over the top and helps us carry this over into the next couple of months and hopefully overtake the Brewers and try to create some separation between us and the other teams in our division. It makes it easier to say upon acquiring such a talented left-handed pitcher and seeing him do what he did in Baltimore in his first start. But I really think that can be the case. We have the offense to win our division and get as deep as we can into the playoffs. There's no reason we can't. I think now, with the starting five we have, we're a team to be reckoned with."
Listen to Arrieta's full interview below.