Jake Arrieta improved to 7-0 on the season Saturday afternoon at Wrigley in the Cubs 8-2 victory over the Pirates. Arrieta completed eight innings in what ended up as one of his longest starts of the year.
Arrieta was very effective in the first three innings and limited the damage to two runs in what was a shaky fourth inning. After he issued a four-pitch walk to Jeff Locke with one out in the fifth, Arrieta got locked in and dominated the Pirates for the remainder of his outing.
Arrieta struck out a season-high 11 batters, two short of his career-high of 13, and needed 108 pitches, 69 for strikes, to complete the stellar eight-inning outing. Six of Arrieta’s 11 strikeouts were on called third strikes, according to ESPN, all of the called third strikes were on fastballs.
Arrieta turned the game over to Justin Grimm for the ninth inning with the Cubs leading 8-2. Arrieta gave up two runs on three hits, all in the fourth inning, with two walks and he hit a batter, Jung Ho Kang.
In eight starts this season, Arrieta has allowed nine runs, eight earned, on 29 hits with 18 walks and 55 strikeouts in 56 innings (1.29 ERA, 0.84 WHIP). Arrieta pitched his second no-hitter on April 21 in Cincinnati.
Arrieta has not lost a regular season game since last July 25, the day Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley Field and ended The Streak. The Cubs have won each of Arrieta’s last 21 regular season starts.
Over his last 28 starts, Arrieta has a 0.98 ERA, 0.73 WHIP in 2013 innings. Arrieta has allowed 105 hits with 45 walks and has 202 strikeouts.
Jake Arrieta has now allowed three or fewer runs in each of his last 28 starts. According to Elias that’s the longest such streak in the majors since 1893, when the pitching rubber was set to 60-feet, six-inches from home plate.