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May 14, 2016 - 2:32 AM Jake Arrieta's nine-start winning streak is over. The Chicago Cubs' winning streak with him on the mound is alive and well, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are sick of hearing about it.

It could reach 21 games Saturday at Wrigley Field against those Pirates, who have fewer hits on their five-game losing streak against the reigning NL Cy Young winner than the Cubs have provided him runs.

Arrieta (6-0, 1.13 ERA) is 17-0 with a 0.76 ERA in 20 regular-season starts since last losing on July 25.

The latest - a 4-3 home win over Washington on Sunday - ended his nine-start winning streak with the right-hander giving up three runs – two earned – and six hits in five innings.

He for once had to rely on his teammates to bail him out, and they got him off the hook for a loss and later won on Javier Baez's 13th-inning walk-off homer.

"It was a team win," Arrieta told MLB's official website. "We grinded it out."

The team's 20-game winning streak in his starts is tops in baseball since Atlanta won 23 straight Kris Medlen starts from 2010-12.

Control is to blame for any and all of Arrieta's "shortcomings" in recent starts. He walked four for the third time in four outings against the Nationals, and while the first was a no-hitter, he's been limited to five innings in the other two.

But Arrieta still hasn't given up four runs or more in 27 regular-season outings since June 16, going 22-1 with a 0.92 ERA. In 14 of those, he hasn't allowed a run. The only other pitcher in data available to 1913 to go even 26 starts without giving up four runs once was Chris Short, who was 10-11 with a 2.13 ERA in 26 straight in pitching-dominant 1967-68.

The last time Arrieta saw the Pirates, he extended that run to 26 by limiting them to two hits in seven innings of a 7-1 win in Pittsburgh on May 3. Opponent frustration ensued.

"I really don't care what he was doing. It's good for him what he's doing," that night's counterpart Jonathon Niese said.

In his last five games against them, including a playoff start, he's 4-0 with a 0.24 ERA. The Pirates have 16 hits in his 38 innings of those games, while the Cubs have provided Arrieta with 21 runs. He's needed very little of that support while posting 23 scoreless innings over his last three starts in the series.

Jordy Mercer (0 for 8), Josh Harrison (1 for 13), John Jaso (1 for 8), Gregory Polanco (3 for 23 with eight strikeouts), Jung Ho Kang (2 for 12) and Starling Marte (4 for 21) have all struggled against him.

There's a little less to say about Jeff Locke (1-2, 4.68). The left-hander has three straight quality starts after limiting St. Louis to three runs and four hits in six innings of last Saturday's 6-4 road loss. He's 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA in those three outings.

He's 0-1 with an 8.31 ERA in four career starts at Wrigley while making it through five innings once. Dexter Fowler is 4 for 9 against Locke, and Anthony Rizzo is 7 for 20 with three home runs and two doubles. Rizzo's .900 slugging percentage is the highest among those with more than 10 at-bats against him.

The Cubs (26-8) opened the series with Friday's 9-4 win after losing two straight for the first time this season. They've won the last six in the series including the playoffs by a 37-9 total with the Pirates stuck with the misfortune of seeing Arrieta in three of those.

Pittsburgh (18-16) is 3-7 this month with four of those losses coming against Chicago. Its rotation has a 6.28 ERA in the 10-game span, while the Cubs are scoring 6 runs and batting .294 in their last 11.