The ascent of Jake Arrieta has been nothing short of remarkable and Scott Kazmir knows that his margin for error on Tuesday night will be razor-thin when his Los Angeles Dodgers visit the Chicago Cubs.

You can catch all the action LIVE on TSN3 and TSN4 at 8pm et/5pm pt.

Acquired from the Baltimore Orioles along with Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger in the summer of 2013, Arrieta has reinvented himself from reclamation to legitimate ace and one of the finest starting pitchers in all of baseball.

With a win on Tuesday night, Arrieta and the Cubs will set the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive team wins in pitcher’s starts with 24. Currently, the record of 23 is shared with Kris Medlen and the Atlanta Braves (from 2010 to 2012). He can also tie Greg Maddux's MLB record for most consecutive road victories with 18.

In those past 23 starts, Arrieta has dominated. He’s 20-0 with an earned run average of 1.05 and a 0.76 WHIP. Hitters are batting a paltry .153 against the 30-year-old native of Farmington, Missouri with a .205 slugging percentage. This stretch also includes a pair of no-hitters (last August 30 against the Dodgers and this past April against the Cincinnati Reds).

The last time Arrieta lost a game, it took his Cubs being no-hit for it to happen. In what ended up being one of his final starts for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs on July 29 in a 5-0 win. Arrieta went six innings and gave up three earned runs in the loss.

Arrieta is also currently riding a streak of 24 quality starts. Only the legendary Bob Gibson (in 1967-68) had a longer such streak since 1914 with 26.

So what’s changed for Arrieta?

Consider his pitch usage prior to last season.

 

JAKE ARRIETA'S CUBS CAREER PRIOR TO LAST SEASON (34 STARTS, 208.1 INNINGS PITCHED)

 
PITCH COUNT AB K BB HBP 1B 2B 3B HR BAA SLG ISO BABIP
Fourseam 665 120 39 21 2 18 2 0 2 .183 .250 .067 .253
Sinker 1011 200 23 18 1 33 15 1 2 .255 .370 .115 .280
Change 161 39 11 1 1 4 0 0 1 .128 .205 .077 .148
Slider 824 246 70 19 2 31 11 1 4 .191 .293 .102 .250
Curve 560 138 58 4 0 16 3 1 3 .167 .268 .101 .260
 

(Stats courtesy of Brooks Baseball)

Compare that to his repertoire from the beginning of last season forward.

 

JAKE ARRIETA OVER 2015-16 (43 STARTS, 291 INNINGS PITCHED)

 
PITCH COUNT AB K BB HBP 1B 2B 3B HR BAA SLG ISO BABIP
Fourseam 310 41 12 2 0 6 2 1 1 .244 .415 .171 .321
Sinker 2143 437 105 36 5 64 18 1 3 .197 .263 .066 .252
Change 200 46 17 2 0 4 0 0 1 .109 .174 .065 .143
Slider 1292 382 108 23 5 47 17 2 5 .186 .280 .940 .245
Curve 668 184 82 5 1 13 6 0 5 .130 .245 .114 .196
 

(Stats courtesy of Brooks Baseball)

 The emergence of Arrieta's sinker as his go-to pitch is striking. Arrieta has gone from using it 31 per cent of the time to 46 per cent of his pitches, while backing away from his fourseamer. But his results have justed the uptick in usage, with batters dropping .058 in average and and striking out more than twice as much.

Cubs pitching coach and 11-year MLB veteran Chris Bosio credits Arrieta's ability to adjust the velocity on each of his pitches - throwing them at three different speeds - for his surging fortunes.

"We try to do this with all our guys all the way back to Scott Feldman," Bosio recently told the Chicago Tribune. "It's something I learned as pitcher. It's something I learned as a golfer - being able to have one club at three different shots. And the predictability is so hard, but you can make different shots. It's just like pitching. You can make different pitches with different speeds and different angles, much like you do in a golf game. And that's something all of our guys can do. Jake has learned how to do it very well."

If Arrieta and the Cubs can notch their 24th consecutive win tonight, the next record on the docket will take a little bit more work to make his own. A victory would bring Arrieta to 10-0 to start the season, good for the second-best undefeated start in Cubs' history. The best? Jim McCormick's 15-0 start all the way back in 1886.