It was not a second consecutive no hitter, but it was another Cy Young-caliber performance for Chicago Cubs starter Jake Arrieta as he pitched eight innings of scoreless baseball in defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-0 Saturday afternoon in the Friendly Confines.
With his performance, Arrieta (W: 18-6, 2.03 ERA) now leads the Major Leagues with 18 wins on the season, and he is second in the Majors in ERA among qualifying pitchers. He allowed four hits on the afternoon with three of them coming in the first two innings. He walked none and struck out seven (video). Hector Rondon (S: 26) allowed two singles in the ninth but got a key double play to help him earn the save.
Robbie Ray (L: 3-11, 3.72) started and pitched well for the Diamondbacks. He allowed two earned runs on four hits in five innings. He served up one home run, a solo shot to Dexter Fowler.
Paul Goldschmidt returned to the Diamondbacks' lineup and made sure Arrieta would not tie Johnny Vander Meer for a record second straight no hitter when he singled with two outs in the first inning. After giving up another single in the first and one in the second, Arrieta then retired the next 16 Diamondbacks before Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a ground-rule double with two outs in the seventh.
Saturday's quality start was the 15th straight for Arrieta, who has a record of 12-1 and an ERA of 0.98 in that span, which began on June 21. After inexplicably missing out on the National League All-Star team, he has quietly made himself a legitimate candidate for the N.L. Cy Young award.
The Cubs scored single runs in the bottom halves of the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, the Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out, but they got only one run on David Ross's RBI bounce out that scored Anthony Rizzo from third. Arrieta and Addison Russell both struck out to end the threat. Fowler hit Ray's first pitch of the fifth into the left-field bleachers (16) to extend the lead to 2-0 (video). Neither team scored from then on.
With the win, the Cubs maintained their lead at 7.5 games over the Washington Nationals for the second N.L. Wild Card position after the Nationals' win over the Atlanta Braves Saturday night. The Cubs trail the Pittsburgh Pirates by three games for the top wild card spot after the Pirates lost to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cubs and Pirates have seven games left with each other, and they will begin a four-game set in Pittsburgh with a double-header on Tuesday, September 15. They meet for three more at Wrigley Field from September 25-27.
On Sunday, the Cubs will look to sweep this weekend's series as they send Kyle Hendricks (6-6, 4.15) to the mound against Arizona's Rubby De La Rosa (12-6, 4.46). The game begins at 2:20 p.m. EDT.