Ever since he was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in 2013, Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta has been working hard to establish himself as one of the premier pitchers in the league.
On Thursday night, Arrieta continued that dominance, throwing six scoreless innings and striking out seven batters in a 7-1 win over the Atlanta Braves. The win was Arrieta’s 15th of the season, making him the league leader in the category so far this year.
To put Arrieta’s recent successes into perspective, we’ve come up with a list of five facts about the Cubs’ ace pitcher that will certainly impress your friends.
1. With his six innings of work on Thursday, Arrieta racked up his 12th consecutive quality start (defined as an outing of six or more innings while allowing three or fewer earned runs). The last Cubs pitcher to have a streak of 12 or more consecutive quality starts was Greg Maddux, who accomplished the feat in 1992. –via ESPN Stats and Info
2. With his 15th victory of the season, Arrieta becomes the first Cubs pitcher to reach that milestone since Ryan Dempster won 15 games in the 2010 season. No Cubs pitcher has reached 20 wins since Jon Lieber won exactly 20 games in the 2001 season.
3. Arrieta’s 15th win means he is the first pitcher in baseball to reach the plateau this season. The last time a Cubs pitcher was the first to 15 wins? You guessed it: Maddux, who was the first to reach 15 victories in the 1988 season. – via ESPN Stats and Info
4. Arrieta is among the league leaders in several pitching categories, and he will likely get a ton of support for the National League Cy Young Award. The last Cubs pitcher to finish in the top five of Cy Young voting was Carlos Zambrano, who finished fifth in 2007. Maddux is the last Cubs pitcher to win the Cy Young Award, taking home the trophy in 1992.
Chicago Baseball
5. Over his last 12 starts, Arrieta has allowed just one home run and a combined OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of just .480. Over that same span, Arrieta himself has hit one home run and racked up an OPS of .731 in his at-bats. – via Christopher Kamka of CSN Chicago
