Arrieta’s ‘strange day’: 12 K’s over 5, defeat

CHICAGO — Only minutes removed from his first regular-season loss since July 25, 2015, Jake Arrieta sat down and answered questions like nothing happened.

Without context to his statements, you might not know the Cubs’ 3-2 loss to the D-backs on Sunday snapped a streak of 20 consecutive Arrieta decisions without a loss, the longest in Cubs history and the third-longest in baseball since at least 1913.

It also might be hard to tell that this loss came despite Arrieta striking out 12 batters in five innings, making him only the fifth pitcher since 1900 to fan 12 or more in five innings or fewer.

“That’s one of the things you deal with in this game sometimes, is things like that,” Arrieta said, calm and composed as ever.

If anyone is aware of his own mortality, it is Arrieta, the man who went from a back-of-the-rotation pitcher with the Orioles to the undisputed best pitcher on the best team in baseball.

As he proved Sunday, with both his strikeouts and his composure, Arrieta dazzles even in defeat.

“It was just a strange day overall,” Arrieta …

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