Jake Arrieta Pitches His Second No-Hitter For The Cubs

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 22, 2016 2:04PM

Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta pitched a no-hitter in Cincinnati last night, where the Cubs—widely prophesied to win the 2016 World Series—beat the Reds 16-0.

It was Arrieta's second no-hitter of his career, which puts him in rarified company. He's now one of three Cubs pitchers with multiple no-hitters, and, according to the Tribune, the only Cubs pitcher to pitch a no-hitter in two back-to-back seasons.

If you have an extremely broad definition of the word "struggle," Arrieta struggled a bit in the first six innings of Thursday night's game, throwing out 85 pitches and walking four players. Manager Joe Maddon let Arrieta keep pitching, though, telling reporters after the game, "You never want to interfere with somebody's greatness." The Trib reports that no relief pitcher warmed up Thursday night.

Arrieta, who won the 2015 National League Cy Young Award, has started in 11 regular season games for the Cubs so far, two of them no-hitters. (His first no-hitter was against the Dodgers in Los Angeles in August.) This record is, as the Sun-Times put it in one of several effusive Arrieta headlines last night, "beyond ridiculous." It's true. According to a 2012 post on the Minitab blog, odds of throwing a no-hitter are roughly 1 in 1,548—which puts the odds of throwing two at roughly one in a million.

It's no surprise that Arrieta's wife, Brittany, calls him "Beast." "That's our nickname for him," she told Sports Illustrated in March.

Arrieta is a humble man, though, and has not tweeted to acknowledge his achievement. His most recent tweet, as of this morning, was a tribute to Prince, who died Thursday: