Arrieta says he respects Pirates fans
PITTSBURGH — Those playful jabs he has been taking on Twitter toward Pirates’ fans are nothing personal, according to Jake Arrieta.
The Chicago Cubs ace pitcher said Tuesday he is just having a little fun on social media and has great respect for the Pirates and their fans.
Arrieta (22-6, 1.77 ERA in the regular season) will face Pirates right-hander Gerrit Cole (19-8, 2.60) on Wednesday night in the National League wild card game at PNC Park.
“I think it’s a big part of the fan-player interaction and it’s all in good fun,” Arrieta said before the Cubs and Pirates worked out at PNC Park on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t mean anything negative toward anybody. It’s kind of the buildup to the game. You’ve got two very passionate fan bases.”
PNC Park has become one of the loudest venues in the major leagues as the Pirates have morphed from a franchise that had 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993-2012 to one that is hosting the wild card game for a third straight season.
“I expect it to be extremely, extremely loud from the get go,” Arrieta said. “I know the type of loyalty the fans have here. I know how passionate they are about their baseball here and I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
The Cubs, though, had the best road record in the major leagues during the regular season with a 48-33 mark, including going 6-4 at PNC Park.
“It doesn’t matter except for your fans,” Cubs manage Joe Maddon said. “You’d like to play in front of your fans. That would be the separator for me.”
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Center fielder Andrew McCutchen won the Roberto Clemente Award, voted on by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, as the Pirates player who best exemplifies the standard of excellence set by the Hall of Fame outfielder.
McCutchen won the award for the fourth straight year and fifth time in six seasons.
Cole won the Steve Blass Award, which recognizes the Pirates’ most outstanding pitcher, and reliever Jared Hughes won the Chuck Tanner Award, which goes to the player who is most cooperative with the local media.
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John Hirschbeck will be the umpiring crew chief for Wednesday night’s game. Jeff Nelson will work home plate while Cory Blaser, Mike Estabrook, Jim Reynolds and Hunter Wendelstedt will comprise the rest of the crew.
Dan Iassogna and Mark Wegner will be the replay officials