CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs were on a meteoric rise in 2015.

They were coming off a last-place season the year prior. They lost 100 games just two years before that.

But in that 2015 season, they were playing postseason baseball for the first time since 2008. The Cubs racked up 97 wins during a gauntlet of a NL Central race in which the St. Louis Cardinals won 100 games and the Pittsburgh Pirates won 98. That meant the Cubs’ chance would come from a single-elimination, wild-card game in Pittsburgh.

The man tasked with keeping the Cubs’ playoff hopes alive on Oct. 7, 2015? Jake Arrieta.

As expected from an ace coming off a MLB-leading 22-win season, Arrieta mowed the Pirates down. He struck out 11 in a five-hit, complete-game shutout as the Cubs tasted playoff glory for the first time in seven years.

Exactly a decade later, Arrieta’s masterful performance still stands tall as one of the most memorable in Cubs playoff history.

Arrieta joined “Cubs Live!” last week with Marquee Sports Network’s Cole Wright, Elise Menaker and Cliff Floyd to reflect on the Cubs’ 4-0 win at PNC Park.

“I was just dialed in. It was a video game,” Arrieta said Tuesday ahead of the Cubs’ NL Wild Card Series opening win over the San Diego Padres. “I might’ve had friends on the other side, but in between the lines, it was all business.”

Three days before the game, a Pirates fan on X (formerly Twitter) set out to taunt Arrieta in a post that read, “Be ready for the sea of black. #BlackOut #BUCN #crowdIsGoingToEatYoualive #walkTheplank.”

Arrieta’s now-infamous response set the tone for what he would do days later:

“Whatever keeps your hope alive,” he wrote, “just know, it doesn’t matter.”

That post followed Arrieta to his wild-card start.

“I saw somebody in the upper deck on the third base side had that printed out,” he said. “On like a 4-by-4 poster.”

The Cubs had their backs against the wall in an environment that would be going all-out for their opponents, but the confidence Arrieta displayed wasn’t just talk.

“Days leading up to that, I knew everything was on the line. I enjoyed being the guy in that role, to help my team get to the next series,” the eventual Cy Young Award winner said. “Where I was at leading into that game, there was no reason not to be confident.”