Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 16

Full disclosure: I didn't see one pitch of this game last night.  I was at my daughter's basketball practice -- my new venture as an assistant coach -- and honestly didn't figure that the game was even going to happen given what I had seen earlier in the day on the weather radar. I wouldn't have even known about the no-hitter until this morning if it weren't for checking BCB last night just to see if there was a post about the game being postponed due to rain. Imagine my surprise when, instead, there's a recap saying that Jake Arrieta threw his second no-hitter in a 16-0 win. And on top of that, it wasn't even an April Fool's gag.

Honestly, it's probably for the best that I wasn't watching the game as it unfolded, because had I been watching when Arrieta threw the 0-2 pitch to Eugenio Suarez in the final at-bat of the night and watched it get called a ball, I probably would have suffered a malady of some sort right there on the spot. Even Thom Brennaman's reaction to that call was "Wow!" That tells you just how close it was.

As for the Tweet of the night, the Dodgers and Reds win hands-down.

@Dodgers We'll bring the Budweiser.

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 22, 2016

Graphs for Game 16 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Stats for Game 16:

Writer's Note: The daily selections of the three Heroes and three Goats are based solely on the top three and bottom three WPA scores for the game. The selections are not based on my subjective opinion.

THE THREE HEROES: Oh, and there was yet another bump on the Heroes as Arrieta's .080 hitting was moved out.  That makes four bumps this season from each podium.  As you may recall, there were only four bumps from the Hero podium in the entire 2015 season.

• Superhero - Jake Arrieta (.183). The only thing that kept his WPA so low this time around, as opposed to his last no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers, was the lopsided score of the game and the speed in which the score became so lopsided.
• Hero - Kris Bryant (.125).  I find it kind of funny that both of Arrieta's no-hitters began in the same fashion on offense, with a two-run homer by Bryant providing the opening salvo in each case.
• Sidekick - Ben Zobrist (.079). Nice to see him get his first homer as a Cub, and the timing of it got him to the final podium spot.

THE THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat - Addison Russell (-.028).  As Al said in his recap, it's kind of a lonely feeling being the only 0-for-6 guy on the night when everyone else is hitting the ball all over the yard, especially when you have a couple of hard-hit shots in the process.
• Goat - Jason Heyward (-.027).  He was basically a victim of hit timing in this game, with a strikeout coming in the plate appearance that mattered most for him on the night.  But don't get me wrong; I'll take a 2-for-4 night any time I can get it.
• Kid - Jorge Soler (-.018). Same story for Soler; his double came when the score was already 9-0 and his outs came with nobody on base, which kept him on a lower podium spot.

RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 16: Arrieta joins Jason Hammel at the top of the chart while Heyward, Russell, and Zobrist all shuffle for position at the lower end.