ESPN Stats & Information 9y

Arrieta dominates, does in Dodgers with dynamite slider

Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta has looked like he could throw a no-hitter on any day.

Sunday night, he finally did.

Arrieta’s is the sixth-no hitter of the season and marked the second time in 10 days that the Los Angeles Dodgers had been no-hit. They’re the first team to be no-hit twice in that brief a span since the 1923 Athletics were no-hit twice in four days.

The 1923 Athletics were a sixth-place team. The Dodgers are considered a World Series contender. Only one team has won a World Series after being no-hit twice in a season: the 1917 White Sox.

The win capped an amazing month for Arrieta, one in which he went 6-0 with a 0.43 ERA and allowed 19 hits in 42 1/3 innings pitched.

The last starting pitcher to have that many wins and that low an ERA in a calendar month is Jim Kaat, who was 6-0 with a 0.35 ERA in September for the 1974 White Sox. The last before Kaat was Carl Hubbell, who was 6-1 with a 0.39 ERA for the 1933 Giants.

Arrieta finished the no-hitter and the month with a flourish, striking out the side in the ninth inning, including Chase Utley for the final out.

Arrieta is the second pitcher to strike out the side to end a no-hitter this season, along with Chris Heston of the Giants. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that prior to that, the last pitcher to strike out the side to end a no-hitter was Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax in his perfect game against the Cubs in 1965.

Utley is in good company, as someone who has twice made the final out of a no-hitter. Among those on that list are baseball legends Hank Aaron and Ted Williams.

How he won: Slider stymies lefties

The Dodgers started seven left-handed hitters (including switch-hitters) against Arrieta, who entered the game holding left-handed hitters to a .503 OPS, the best mark for any right-handed pitcher who had qualified for the ERA title.

He threw 30 sliders to left-handed hitters, with 20 of them down and in (inner half and lower half). Eight of his nine strikeouts with his slider came on those 20 pitches.

The Dodgers have a team batting average of .174 this season in at-bats to end with a slider from a righty, the worst such average in the league by 22 points.

Arrieta got a career-high 21 swings-and-misses, including 12 with his slider.

The last closed out the Cubs' first no-hitter since Carlos Zambrano threw one against the Astros in 2008.

Did you know?

The last pitcher to go 6-0 and throw a no-hitter in the same calendar month was sitting in the Dodgers' dugout. Elias notes that Clayton Kershaw did it last June.

Arrieta is the third visiting pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium, along with Dennis Martinez of the Expos in 1991 and Kent Mercker of the Braves in 1994.

The Dodgers became the first team to throw two no-hitters in one season and be no-hit twice the following season. They've also been no-hit more than any other team (19 times, one more than the Phillies).

This was the 30th no-hitter this decade. That’s twice as many no-hitters as there were in the 2000s.

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