Happy 5-year anniversary to Jake Arrieta throwing his second no-hitter with the Cubs

On this day in 2016, Jake Arrieta threw his second no-hitter with the Cubs, cementing his status as an all-time legend in MLB and Chicago.

Jake Arrieta is one of the few bright spots for the Chicago Cubs so far in 2021. His return to the North Side has softened the blow from painful underachieving seasons in the last few years as well as the trade of Yu Darvish and losing Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber in free agency.

After picking up a win against the New York Mets on Tuesday night, Wednesday marked the five-year anniversary of Arrieta throwing his second no-hitter in his last 11 starts with the Cubs. He no-hit the Dodgers in 2015 when he won the Cy Young.

April 21, 2016, was one of the best days to be a Cubs fan and foretold a big celebration that was coming in early November when they won the World Series.

Arrieta no-hit the Cincinnati Reds in a 16-0 romp over their NL Central foes.

Happy 5-year anniversary to Jake Arrieta on his second no-hitter

“I envisioned pitching like this, even when I had a 5.00 (ERA) in Baltimore,” Arrieta said after the game about his breakout since the trade from Baltimore to Chicago. “I expected to get to this point.

“Regardless of how long it took or what I had to go through to get there, I had visualizations of throwing no-hitters or throwing shutouts. It’s starting to happen for me, and I don’t take any of it for granted.”

And the catcher who received the no-hitter and hugged Arrieta after the last out was recorded? None other than current Cubs manager David Ross.

The Cubs got a two-spot in the first inning and that was all they needed that day with Arrieta dialed in the way he was. That was during a run when Arrieta was putting up numbers that bested Bob Gibson in his prime before baseball had to lower the mound.

After Arrieta’s second no-hitter, his numbers in his last 17 starts looked like stats you see in the Dead Ball Era. Arrieta had only allowed four teams to score on him, including two no-hitters. He allowed nine total runs in his last 162 innings pitched for a sterling 0.50 ERA. Over his last 24 starts, he is 20-1 with a 0.86 ERA with the lone loss coming against Cole Hamels who no-hit the Cubs.