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Jake Arrieta Throws No Hitter Against Dodgers

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  • Jake Arrieta Throws No Hitter Against Dodgers

    Dodgers, no-hit victims for second time in 10 days: We wuz robbed! - Los Angeles - Dodgers Report - ESPN

    LOS ANGELES -- This one came with a little more controversy.

    While the Chicago Cubs and their starving faithful bounced along the clouds after Jake Arrieta's 12-strikeout no-hitter Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, a 2-0 victory, the Los Angeles Dodgers were none too pleased with being blanked in the hit column for the second time in the past 10 days. That makes them the first team to be no-hit twice in the same month since the 1971 Cincinnati Reds, and it makes them the first team in 92 years to be no-hit twice in that short a span.

    After the game, the Dodgers downplayed the significance of being no-hit twice in such a short time, noting that while they were unhappy with themselves on Aug. 21 when Houston Astros right-hander Mike Fiers got his piece of history against them, this time they thought Arrieta was flat-out great.

    “You can’t say the at-bats were bad. This guy’s stuff was really good, and it’s really good all the time,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “You have to tip your cap to him.”

    That does not mean the Dodgers thought they were no-hit. While they might have gotten beat and dominated by Arrieta, they felt they had their hit against him early on.

    Enrique Hernandez hit a hot shot at second baseman Starlin Castro in the third inning. It short-hopped Castro, who knocked it down with his body but the ball ricocheted away, and Hernandez was safe at first base. The ball was hit so hard and the hop was so difficult to handle, the Dodgers and even Arrieta believed the ball should be ruled a hit.

    "I thought it was a hit,” Arrieta said. “It was a tough play, a short hop."

    Almost immediately, Dodger Stadium official scorer Jerry White ruled it an error on Castro. Mattingly said he thought it was a hit, but that it was a “moot point now” because the Dodgers failed to score anyway.

    Hernandez believed it was a hit, and his teammates felt the same way.

    “Just ask Arrieta,” Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. “He said it was a hit.

    “I asked five of their players when they were on the bases and they all thought it was a hit. But you know what? He threw a great game. Hats off to him.”

    Cubs manager Joe Maddon defended his pitcher’s no-no, even if his pitcher and his opponents did not.

    “That’s a tough call,” Maddon said. “But it’s right at him, and the scorekeeper didn’t flinch or hesitate. It came up as an error. I give the guy credit for trying to do the right thing.”

    Scarier for the Dodgers than being no-hit twice this month is that this is not a surprise blip on their radar. This is the kind of offense they have produced since the All-Star break, clocking in as the second-lowest scoring team in the National League in the second half. Their 151 runs are tied with the Miami Marlins for second fewest, ahead of the Atlanta Braves' 128.

    And now on Monday starts their most important series of the year against the rival San Francisco Giants, a team that has beaten them nine times in 12 games this season and a team that shut them out for an entire series in May.

    San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner will face this lineup Tuesday, and you can be certain the Dodgers will be on no-hit watch from the opening pitch.

    With all that said, the Dodgers are still a first-place team with a 3.5-game lead over the Giants. They still will have Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, frontrunners for the National League Cy Young Award, pitching in that series against the Giants. Being no-hit twice in a week and a half is not going to devastate a clubhouse with World Series aspirations.

    “Baseball is baseball. Things are going to happen,” Gonzalez said. “Things are going to happen that you can't predict. Things are going to happen that you can't explain. They just happen.”

  • #2
    hope he pitches the wild card game!

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