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“It’s just my time.”
On Monday, April 18, Jake Arrieta announced he’d be stepping away from the game of baseball while on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast, ending a 12-year pitching career.
The 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner spent parts of six seasons on Chicago’s north side and will go down as one of the Cubs’ more decorated pitchers, despite playing just half of his career as a Cub.
Arrieta had some unbelievable moments as a member of the Cubs’ starting rotation, so it seems fitting to take a look back on Arrieta’s best moments in a Cubs uniform.
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2016 World Series
Let’s start with the greatest moment in Chicago Cubs baseball history and the obvious 2016 World Series title.
Arrieta did not look dominant in the series before, the National League Championship Series, when he went just five innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving up four earned runs on six hits. But when the bright lights of the World Series were on him, Jake shined, and the Cleveland Indians had no answer for him.
In two World Series starts (both on the road), Arrieta produced a 2.38 ERA in 11.1 innings. He walked six batters but struck out 15 men in the process.
In Game Two, with the Cubs facing a 1-0 series deficit, Arrieta took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before eventually being pulled. In Game Six he was strong again, and helped lead the Cubs to victory, ultimately tying the series at three games apiece. This would of course set up the most dramatic Game Seven, arguably, in World Series history. You know how that ended.
Arrieta became the first National League starting pitcher to earn two road wins in a single World Series since Bob Gibson in 1967. Without him, the Cubs likely would not have been World Series champions.
The Streak
Who will ever be able to duplicate the 30+ game stretch that Arrieta experienced from 2015 to 2016, ever again?
Over 30 starts, Arrieta put up a stat line that simply boggles the mind.
He went 25-1 (the one loss, by the way, was to the Phillies’ Cole Hamels, who threw a no-hitter against the Cubs), held a 1.13 ERA, and a 0.76 WHIP. Those are not misprints. He also held batters to a .156 batting average over this stretch. In the second half of the 2015 season, Arrieta just utterly dominated baseball, with a 0.75 ERA, the lowest second-half ERA in baseball history.
There was a point in this run where Arrieta gave up seven earned runs in 119+ innings pitched (that’s a 0.53 ERA). It doesn’t seem real. You may watch baseball for 100 years and never see that happen again.
Arrieta’s dominance eventually came to an end, but during this 30+ game stretch, watching Arrieta take the mound became must-see TV.
Two No-Hitters
Thousands of big-league pitchers have pitched thousands of big-league games, but only a handful of them (314) have ever recorded a no-hitter.
Arrieta did it twice in less than a year.
His first no-hitter came on Sunday Night Baseball on August 30, 2015, versus the Dodgers in a nail-biting, 2-0 Cubs victory, in which Arrieta struck out 12 men. He would throw another no-no just 11 regular season starts later on April 21, 2016, when he shut down the Cincinnati Reds in a 16-0 Cubs blowout.
Arrieta’s second no-hitter was just the 15th in Cubs history at the time. Current Cubs Manager, Davis Ross, was behind the dish for this version.
Arrieta also helped himself at the plate, earning hits in both no-hitter starts, including two singles, a walk, and a run scored versus the Reds. He could do it all.
Cubs fans will never forget Arrieta’s not one, but two, dominant outings and no-hitters.
2015 Wild Card Game vs. Pittsburgh
Before the Cubs officially arrived as 2016 World Series favorites, there was the magical 2015 run, in which the youthful, exciting Cubs took baseball by surprise and won 97 regular season games. Led by 20-somethings in Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and others, the Cubs were a team on the rise.
Despite the 97 wins, the Cubs found themselves in baseball’s best division and finished in third place behind the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates, at 98 wins, were the home team for the 2015 National League wild-card game.
On the mound for the Cubs was Arrieta, and when the Cubs needed their ace to be at his best, he was. In his first career playoff start, he threw a complete-game shutout, and the Cubs bounced the Pirates, 4-0.
Arrieta struck out 11 batters, gave up just five hits, and walked no one. The Pirates had no answers for Jake and the Cubs on this early October night. The win led the Cubs to advance in the post-season where they would eventually eliminate the Cardinals in the National League Division Series, before falling to the New York Mets in the NLCS.
2017 NLCS vs. Los Angeles
One year after winning the World Series for the first time since 1908, the Cubs again found themselves in the National League Championship Series in a matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, this time around, the Dodgers were the clear favorites after a 104-win campaign (the Cubs were just 92-70).
Los Angeles raced out to a 3-0 series lead and the Cubs looked toast as they headed into a win or go-home Game Four. They again gave the ball to Arrieta with the season on the line at home in Wrigley Field and Jake again answered the call.
Despite nursing a right hamstring injury that limited Arrieta in the season’s final month, he gutted out a 111-pitch performance to stave off elimination and send the Cubs home winners in a 3-2 victory. Jake threw 6.2 innings of one-run ball, giving up only three hits. He issued five free passes but struck out nine Dodgers to keep himself and the Cubs alive.
As he walked to the dugout after getting lifted from the game, he received a standing ovation from the loyal Cubs fans, who sensed this could be Arrieta’s last start as a Cub, as he was headed to free agency that winter. He would ultimately leave to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies, before returning in 2021 for his final season and swan song.
The Cubs would go on to lose the series in five games, but Arrieta’s gutsy performance is a lasting memory for many Cubs fans.
As Jake rides off into the sunset with his playing career behind him, Cubs fans everywhere thank him for the great memories and his record-breaking moments at 1060 West Addison Street.
