Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta is pitching his way into history

Jake Arrieta’s numbers are so absolutely ridiculous since July 2015 that PED rumors have been flying, simply because what he’s doing is unprecedented.

After mowing down the Pittsburgh Pirates last night in much the same way he did in the NL Wild Card Game last October, reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta improved to 6-0. He set the Cubs all time record for most consecutive wins, 17, topping Rick Sutcliffe’s 16 straight in 1984. But more than that, what Arrieta has done since last July has been nothing short of historic.

In his last 26 starts, dating to July of last year, he’s 22-1 with a 0.85 ERA and two no-hitters.

Over his last 18 starts, Arrieta is 17-0 with a 0.55 ERA. That averages out to about one run for every two full games pitched.

Arrieta also became the first Cub in more than a century to win his first six starts in a season. Hall of Famer Moredcai “Three Finger” Brown also did it. In 1908.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Cliff Corcoran, after his no-hitter against the Reds in April, Arrieta had 22 consecutive regular-season starts in which he pitched six or more innings and allowed three or fewer runs. That, according to baseball-reference.com’s Play Index, is the longest streak by a major league starter since 1913, when such records were first recorded.

Arrieta’s streak of “quality starts” ended against the Brewers in April, when he gave up one run on three hits in five innings. He fell just short of Bob Gibson’s record 26 quality starts in 1967-68. That’s what a non-quality start looks like for Arrieta nowadays: three hits and one run. He still got the win.

A fifth-inning RBI double also ended Arrieta’s home scoreless streak at 52 2/3 innings, just one inning shy of Ray Herbert’s major league record set in 1962-63 with the crosstown White Sox.

He has been so dominant that rumors of performance enhancing drugs have begun to circulate. The incredible switch from average pitcher to the major’s best is indeed head-scratching. In Baltimore, his best season was 10-8 with an ERA over 5 in 2011. He was traded to the Cubs in 2013.

Arrieta responded to Stephen A. Smith’s not so subtle insinuation that steroids are still a part of the game by saying that he will keep “laughing … No one will undercut my work.”

In an interview with USA Today, Arrieta responded to the steroid rumors. “Well,” Arrieta said, “the 10 tests I take a year say otherwise. I eat plants. I eat lean meat. I work out. And I do things the right way.

“If there are guys still on it, I hope they get caught. I care about the integrity of the game. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my family, my friends, my fans. That’s a huge motivating factor in doing it the right way.”

There is no predicting when Jake Arrieta’s historic run will end. He is 30, an age where most pitchers begin a slow but steady decline. A look at the last 10+ months, however, shows a pitcher who has finally figured it out, with no signs of slowing down. The best might still be yet to come.

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