Arrieta is 3rd Cubs pitcher to throw multiple no-nos

Jake Arrieta delivered the 15th no-hitter in Cubs history and his second in as many seasons on Thursday night, as Chicago rolled past Cincinnati, 16-0, at Great American Ball Park.

The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner walked four batters and struck out a modest six, but he still became only the third pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters for the Cubs. Larry Corcoran tossed three back in the 1880s, while Ken Holtzman accomplished the feat on Aug. 19, 1969, against Atlanta, and June 3, 1971, coincidentally also at Cincinnati.

There were only nine starts for Arrieta between Thursday and last Aug. 30, when he no-hit the Dodgers in Los Angeles. In that game, he walked one, struck out 12 and saw one batter reach on an error. At 116, his pitch count was three below his effort the second time around.

The last no-no before Arrieta’s first one came in Milwaukee on Sept. 14, 2008 — in front of a predominantly Cubs-friendly crowd of 23,441 fans that shouldn’t have been there. Fiery right-hander Carlos Zambrano had just recovered from rotator cuff tendinitis that had forced him to miss his past two starts.

Zambrano was scheduled to make his return to the Cubs’ rotation on the team’s upcoming road trip to Houston, but that plan had to be altered. Hurricane Ike rolled through the Gulf of Mexico and caused major damage to east Texas, making it impossible to travel to Houston.

Jake Arrieta’s second …

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