Chicago Cubs: Celebrating the historic achievements of Jake Arrieta

Heading into what could be his last season as a member of the Chicago Cubs, right-handed ace Jake Arrieta has already made his share of history.

Over the last two-plus seasons, Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs has established himself as one of the league’s elite arms.

A 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner, thrower of two no-hitters and an 18-game winner a year ago, Arrieta is a bona fide ace.

On Monday, he turned 31 years old. Talks between Arrieta and the Cubs are yet to pick up any traction and it appears he’ll test the open market at season’s end. He has given Cubs fans some of the best memories they have during his time on the North Side.

There’s no telling what the future holds between the two sides. Just over 12 months ago, Dexter Fowler was a reported Baltimore Oriole – yet, days later, he walked into Cubs camp – to the surprise of the entire team.

Theo Epstein has pulled off stranger miracles. He’s broken the Curse of the Bambino and the Curse of the Billy Goat. A reunion can’t be counted out until the chickens hatch.

But, for now, let’s enjoy Arrieta’s big day and look back at the highlights of his time with the Chicago Cubs.

Cy Young pitcher, home run hitter

Last season, Jake Arrieta was a 1.0 WAR player – with the bat.

That’s a staggering number for a pitcher, but if you watched his at-bats every day, it hardly comes as a surprise. Even in the postseason, Arrieta was on-point.

In the National League Division Series, the reigning Cy Young winner stepped up – and delivered. With Madison Bumgarner on the hill in a tied game, Arrieta took the southpaw deep.

Before that at-bat, Madison Bumgarner had never allowed a home run to an opposing pitcher. We’re not just talking about in postseason play, where he’s been utterly dominant. In his entire big-league career, MadBum had never allowed a long-ball to his opposite number.

The blast was Arrieta’s fourth career home run and his first postseason knock. Not a bad way to break into the hit column for a postseason career, eh?

Arrieta takes over the City of Angels

In late August 2015, the Los Angeles Dodgers were no-hit – twice.

Jake Arrieta was the author of the second performance. With three-straight strikeouts, including one final punchout of Chase Utley, the right-hander attained Cubs’ immortality.

This no-hitter was remarkable, the epitome of his historical second-half. The benefactor of an error by Starlin Castro early-on, he cruised and got strong as he went. Unlike for Cubs fans, the night sped by for Arrieta.

“It went by so quick, really,” Arrieta said. “Feels like that could have been five innings the way that played out. The stuff was good, commanded the ball well. Kind of speechless right now.”

The Chicago Cubs’ ace, of course, credited his defense for the performance.But it was a combination of velocity and knee-buckling movement that spelled doom for the Dodgers’ offense.

I still remember watching this game. What started as another lights-out Arrieta outing quickly turned into history. We’d all grown accustomed to opposing teams falling flat on their face against him, this was something altogether different.

A retirement gift for Grandpa Rossy

The 2016 campaign featured countless mementos for David Ross, who retired at season’s end. Jake Arrieta, however, gave him the best gift of all: catching a no-hitter.

Chicago put together one of its best all-around performances of the season at the Great American Ballpark that night. The offense tallied 16 runs and, yet again, Arrieta twirled a masterpiece. This continued a seemingly endless string of lights-out performances from the right-hander.

The best way to sum up Arrieta’s dominance comes from former Cincinnati outfielder Jay Bruce.

“It’s tough. We got dominated,” he told MLB.com. “It’s the most dominating baseball game I’ve ever been a part of. Obviously, he was great. We weren’t. The news and the talking points are the no-hitter and all the runs scored. But at the end of the day, we lost a game. We just have to keep going. Nothing we can do about it now.”

That’s a fair sentiment at the end of game as lopsided as that. But, in all honesty, there was nothing the Cincinnati Reds could do – even during that contest. Arrieta ended the Reds’ MLB-leading streak of 7,109 games without being no-hit; while also etching his name in baseball history.

Only Nolan Ryan has more no-hitters away from his home ballpark in Major League Baseball history. Arrieta tossed a season-high 119 pitches to get his ultimate prize, but, when the dust settled, history was made.

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