LOS ANGELES — Even after pitching his first career no-hitter, Jake Arrieta wasn’t too big to wear his PJs.
He threw the second no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 10 days, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 2-0 victory Sunday night.
Arrieta was lights-out on the mound, striking out a season-high 12. He looked ready for lights out afterward, slipping into one-piece pajamas decorated with moustaches for the overnight flight home.
Fitting, since the 29-year-old right-hander had thought about throwing a no-hitter since he was a kid. His grandfather witnessed one of Nolan Ryan’s no-hitters in Texas.
“You see other guys around the league do it and you want to be a part of something like that,” Arrieta said. “So it’s not only special for me and my family and friends, but for the organization and my teammates. They embraced me after the game, and it was extremely special to see how excited they were for what I was able to do.”
The kiddie attire was suggested before the game by manager Joe Maddon, one of his colorful apparel themes to build team unity. The Cubs embraced the goofiness an hour after the final out, coming onto the Dodger Stadium field in their brightly colored PJs to pose for photos.
Arrieta tossed the sixth no-hitter in the majors this season with the benefit of a close call by official scorer Jerry White. He charged Starlin Castro with a third-inning error when Kike Hernandez reached on a one-hopper hit right at the second baseman, although several players on both sides believed it should have been ruled a hit.
“It should have been a hit,” Hernandez said. “I knew if we didn’t get another hit they weren’t going to change it. He overmatched us tonight and they gave him the benefit of the doubt.”
Arrieta thought so, too.
“He hit it pretty well. I think (the call) could have gone either way,” he said. “I wasn’t aware that it was an error until I think an inning or two later. It was kind of out of sight, out of mind. But even if it was a hit, I would have kept the same mindset.”
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White gave Castro an error after he tried to make the play on an in-between hop. The ball bounced off him and rolled away, allowing Hernandez to reach first.
“If he stays down on the ball, he makes the play,” White said. “He came up thinking the ball was coming up. The ball was hit right at him and he didn’t have to move to make the play.”
Arrieta (17-6) walked one and became the first 17-game winner in the big leagues by throwing baseball’s third no-hitter in less than three weeks.
“He has that kind of stuff nightly,” Maddon said. “It’s really crazy. The ball looks like a wiffle ball from the side. You can see the break on the slider and the curveball. Right now he’s pitching at a different level.”
Mike Fiers blanked the NL West leaders 3-0 on Aug. 21 in Houston. Never before had Los Angeles been no-hit twice in one season.
“The last one bothered me more,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I thought we got out of the strike zone and weren’t ready to play. Tonight didn’t look anything like Houston.”
Arrieta lowered his ERA to 0.43 in August while becoming the first Cubs pitcher with that many wins in the month since Rick Sutcliffe in 1984.
Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners pitched a no-hitter Aug. 12 against Baltimore. Cole Hamels of Philadelphia, San Francisco rookie Chris Heston and Washington ace Max Scherzer also have thrown no-hitters this season. The major league record for most in a season since 1900 is seven, done in 1990, 1991 and 2012.