Jake Arrieta pitched eight innings of four-hit ball for his major league-best 18th win, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-0 on Saturday.
Arrieta also struck out seven in his first start since he threw his first career no-hitter against the Dodgers last Sunday. It was the seventh consecutive victory for the right-hander, who has allowed just two earned runs in 50 1-3 innings during his win streak.
Arrieta (18-6) allowed two hits in the first, but struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia to end the inning. Hector Rondon yielded two hits in the ninth before finishing for his 26th save in 30 chances.
Arizona wasted a solid start by Robbie Ray in its third consecutive loss. Paul Goldschmidt had two hits in his return to the lineup after missing two games to be with his wife, Amy, in Phoenix as she gave birth to their first child.
Ray (3-11) struck out eight in five innings. The left-hander allowed two runs and four hits, but dropped to 0-7 with a 5.23 ERA in 10 starts since his last victory on July 7.
David Ross drove in a run with a bases-loaded groundout in the fourth, and Dexter Fowler drove Ray's first pitch of the fifth over the wall in left for his 16th homer. His previous career best was 13 with Colorado in 2012.
Arrieta's no-hitter included a season-high 12 strikeouts and was the sixth in the majors this year. In a breakout season last year, he became the first Cubs pitcher since 1950 to pitch no-hit ball into the seventh inning three times in one season.
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He retired 16 in a row in one stretch, with Saltalamacchia breaking up the string with a two-out double in the seventh.
The Cubs loaded the based with none out in the fourth, but managed only one run on Ross' chopper up the middle. Ray then struck out Arrieta and Addison Russell.
The bat flew out of Russell's hands while he was at the plate and went into the stands, but an alert fan caught the lumber and no one appeared to be injured.
