PITTSBURGH -- They played on the same team in the Arizona Fall League in 2007, and now one is an MVP and the other a Cy Young winner while their teams are two of the best in the National League.

Jake Arrieta and Andrew McCutchen will face each other Tuesday night for the first time since the NL wild-card game last fall, when Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs blanked McCutchen's Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0. Arrieta has come a long way since the Phoenix Desert Dogs, according to McCutchen.

"He looks like a grown man," McCutchen said Monday. "He's really grown into his body. You can tell he's put the work in. Physically, he's there."

Jake Arrieta will take the mound Tuesday night at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, the site of his greatest triumph -- a complete-game shutout in last season's NL wild-card game. Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Like most who knew Arrieta back then, or when he made it to the majors, McCutchen agrees the righty's stuff has always been elite. It was the rest of him that had to come along. McCutchen also noticed that Arrieta had a different motion when he played for the Baltimore Orioles; he wasn't throwing across his body. It has been well-documented that when Arrieta arrived in Chicago, the Cubs let him be himself. Success soon followed.

"Sometimes you know yourself the best," McCutchen said. "You give him that little bit, he's going to take it. He had a tremendous season last year. ... He's basically on that path to duplicating what he did last year, if not doing better."

Arrieta enters Tuesday's game with a 5-0 record and 1.00 ERA. On Monday he won his third consecutive pitcher-of-the-month award, a first for a National League hurler. Now he takes the mound in Pittsburgh, where he had the greatest triumph of his career.

"It was short-lived," Arrieta said, casually. "We moved on and had to play the Cardinals and the Mets, and our season was cut short."

After the wild-card win, the Cubs had an epic celebration that still resonates with the visiting clubhouse attendants. They claim they can still smell the stench of champagne and beer in certain parts of the locker room where the Cubs enjoyed their victory. And that's after the attendants took their huge vacuum cleaners to the room four to five times last fall.

"I remember the game and the celebration," Cubs shortstop Addison Russell said. "It was pretty crazy in here."

It was wild on the field that day in October as well, as the benches cleared after reliever Tony Watson hit Arrieta with a pitch in the seventh inning. It looked intentional after Arrieta had hit a couple of Pirates earlier in the game. Fast forward to Monday night, in Game 1 of the season series between the teams, and more words were exchanged after Ben Zobrist was plunked late in the game. Both benches were warned.

"It's part of the game," Arrieta stated before Monday's antics. "I think everyone is a little overly sensitive. Not just in this game now but in society overall."

If the Pirates are being overly sensitive because the Cubs are getting all the attention this year, they're not showing it. Despite being in the playoffs for three straight years, some might be overlooking them, but they're not complaining. McCutchen understands the Cubs are the new darlings of baseball.

"It was newfound territory for them," he said. "Expectations weren't too high at first and they kind of came out of nowhere [last season]. They became a new Cubs team, really, with the winning."

And then the Cubs went out and signed three free agents (Ben Zobrist, John Lackey and Jason Heyward), costing them much more than the Pirates would ever think of spending in several offseasons combined. McCutchen would love for his team to do that someday.

The rivalry between the Cubs and Pirates picked up steam after Jake Arrieta was hit by a Tony Watson pitch last October, causing the benches to empty. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

"We haven't done it yet," he said. "We're locking guys up. That's something we didn't do in the past, so that's a jump. As far as extending someone for 8-9 years for hundreds of millions, I mean, who knows? I'm not sure. I'm not a general manager and that's not my money to spend. That's out of my jurisdiction.

"I focus on what we have in front of us, and we've done a good job of playing with what we have. So at this point it's not like there is a need to sign someone of that caliber."

The Cubs' success has carried over to this season, as they're off to an 18-6 start. The Pirates (15-11) aren't too far behind despite losing Monday. It's the first time since 1977 the teams have met in May or later with one in first place and the other in second.

The Pirates are talented and probably aren't going to fade in the NL Central, despite the Cubs' current four-game lead. They also have reinforcements coming in top pitching prospects, but that's for a later date. Tuesday is about solving Arrieta.

"It's about being aggressive," Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco said. "He's a pitcher that throws a lot of strikes and works the zone well. You keep the same approach. He is a great pitcher and his mechanics, pitching across the body, makes him very tough."

McCutchen saw all of this nearly a decade ago, but Arrieta was raw, not even close to the pitcher he has become. Can the Pirates finally solve him? Can anyone?

"He's always had the stuff," McCutchen said. "You just hope you can catch him on a day where he's not pinpoint on."