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Morning Marquee: Jake Arrieta hurls first Cubs’ no-hitter since 2008

By David Miniel

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It’s been a rough West Coast road trip for this playoff hopeful Chicago Cubs team having dropped four straight games entering Sunday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Little did we know, something special was about to happen later on that evening.

Most assumed that this skid would end once Jon Lester took the mound during Saturday’s contest, but Chicago would fall to the Dodgers who extended their winning streak to five games with their 5-2 victory over Maddon’s prized southpaw. Which left it up to right-handed ace pitcher, Jake Arrieta to make things right the next day.

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If you haven’t figured it out already, Arrieta is the heart and soul of this starting rotation. Not to take anything away from Lester, but the 29-year-old has been on a mission since being dealt away from the Baltimore Orioles just a couple of years ago.

After relying on his defense to make several key defensive plays, Arrieta was inching closer and closer to recording his first career no-hitter. He’s had at least six outings in which he’s taken a no-no into the sixth or seventh inning only to have it slip away from his grasp over the past two season’s.

In case you haven’t heard or missed it, the Dodgers were no-hit just 10 days ago against a former N.L. Central pitcher in Mike Fiers. Fiers faced Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Justin Turner to shut down the visiting Dodgers in Houston’s 3-0 victory.

Last night, Arrieta was put up against Turner who had never faced him in his big league career and had to get past long-time Philadelphia Phillies’ teammates, Rollins and Utley who were both 0-for-9 against him.

He would proceed to notch not only his first career no-hitter after striking out the side, but it was the first time a Cubs pitcher had done so since Carlos Zambrano back in 2008. The last time this team went to the playoffs.

And what makes it even sweetest, is that the Dodgers swept and eliminated Chicago the same year. How crazy is that?

For the first time in franchise history, Chicago has been on both sides of the fence when it comes to throwing and being no-hit. With the N.L. Cy Young race heating up, Jake finished August with a perfect 6-0 record and lowered his monthly ERA to 0.43.

As mentioned before, this was Arrieta’s first no-no in his career – the man behind the dish, Miguel Montero, is no stranger to this subject. Montero caught former Cub Edwin Jackson‘s no-hitter during the 2010 campaign when they were both with the Arizona Diamondbacks and he made his big league debut against the Marlins in 2006 the same day Anibal Sanchez no-hit the D’backs.

Here are some #Cubs tweets from social media:

And here’s some more news from around the league:

‘Jung Ho Kang earning right to starting shortstop job‘ – Rum Bunter

‘Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta no-hits Los Angeles Dodgers‘ – Call To The Pen

‘Cardinals take Sunday game from Giants‘ – Redbird Rants 

‘Mariners to skip Felix day on Monday‘ – SoDo MoJo 

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