California Dreamin: Arrieta's Golden State Success Gives Cubs Fans Hope

The Chicago Cubs are tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, and on Tuesday they’ll send Jake Arrieta to the hill as the team looks to take back the series lead and move one step closer to a berth in the World Series.

Arrieta, who struggled over a good chunk of the second half of the regular season, had a solid outing in his first postseason start this year, going six innings and giving up just two earned runs to the San Francisco Giants. Arrieta also did some serious offensive damage of his own, blasting a three-run home run off of Madison Bumgarner in that game.

This time around, Arrieta is facing a more talented Dodgers lineup, but his recent past against the Dodgers suggests that he could be in for a good time on Tuesday night. In his last two starts against the Dodgers, Arrieta has thrown a combined 16 innings, giving up zero runs and just two hits while striking out 20 batters during that time.

One of those two starts was particularly historic, as Arrieta threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers in his last start against them at Dodger Stadium. That game came in the summer of 2015 when Arrieta struck out 12 hitters and walked only one in his first career no-hitter.

Arrieta doesn’t only have success against the Dodgers, and in fact has success pretty much every time he takes the mound in the state of California. According to Christopher Kamka of CSN Chicago, in Arrieta’s last seven starts in the Golden State, he has a 0.53 ERA, surrendering just 21 hits and striking out 49 batters in 51 innings of work.

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