After a remarkable week that saw him throw his first career no-hitter, Chicago Cubs pitcher Alec Mills has been honored as the National League’s Player of the Week.
Mills, who tossed the no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, made two starts in the last week and made the most of them, throwing 15 innings of shutout baseball while allowing just four hits and earning two victories.
Mills is the second Cubs player to earn Player of the Week honors this season, joining fellow pitcher Kyle Hendricks, who threw a complete game shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers in the team's season opener in July.
The 28-year-old Mills has a 5-3 record and a 3.93 ERA with the Cubs so far this season, but has been exceptionally good in the month of September, with a 1.80 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 20 innings of work so far this month.
His no-hitter Sunday was the 16th in Cubs history and the first since Jake Arrieta held the Cincinnati Reds without a hit in a start in April 2016. Cubs manager David Ross caught that game for the North Siders.
The no-hitter is just the second in the history of Milwaukee’s Miller Park, and the other was also thrown by a Cubs pitcher, as Carlos Zambrano kept the Houston Astros out of the hit column in his start Sept. 14, 2008. That game was moved because of a hurricane threatening Texas, and was the first thrown by a Cubs pitcher since 1972.
