Chicago sports top ten moments of 2015

Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Jake Arrieta has a magical season

Jake Arrieta had a pretty good season in 2014. He was 10-5 on a last place Chicago Cubs team. He had an ERA of 2.53 and a WHIP of 0.99.

With a better team in 2015, most figured Arrieta would have a better season, but no one could have predicted how great of a season he was about to have.

Arrieta ended the season with a 22-6 record, a 1.77 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP, had four complete games, three shutouts and 236 strikeouts in 229 innings over 33 games started. The wins, the shutouts, the complete games and the games started all led MLB.

Oh, and he threw a no-hitter as well.

In 2015, Arrieta was as sure of a win as you can possibly expect. After the All Star game (in which he was not even a member of), he had a greatest second half of a season in MLB history. He was 12-1 (the Cubs were 14-1 in his games), with an incredible 0.75 ERA. He had 113 strikeouts against just 23 walks, and a 0.73 WHIP in 107-and-1/3 innings.

Over that period, opposing hitters batted just .148 against Arrieta.

Arrieta pitched in the Wild Card game and shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the postseason, he was 2-1.

The result for Arrieta was winning the 2015 Cy Young Award that he could place in his trophy case.

Arrieta was a big part of the reason the Chicago Cubs were able to make their magical playoff run.

We don’t know how good Arrieta will be next season, but if he is a fraction as good as he was in 2015, he will definitely have another great season.

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