A GIF-by-GIF breakdown of Jake Arrieta's NL Cy Young-winning season

Jake Arrieta beat out Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke to take home the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night. The 29-year-old had a spectacular season -- leading the league with 22 wins and four complete games, posting a 1.77 ERA (including a record 0.75 mark in the second half) and racking up 236 strikeouts. His reaction to winning was just as cool and collected as his presence on the mound.

Let's go back and see just how the man did it.

Arrieta, who had never won more than 10 games or pitched more than 156 innings in a season, looked different this year. He just looked like somebody you didn't want to square up against in the batter's box. Was it his cold-blooded handlebar mustache/beard combo?

Or could it have been his manic, I'm-coming-for-you-and-all-of-your-teammates stretching techniques before games?

Either way, it probably helped his 95-mph fastball look even faster than it was:

And made his curveball, well, unhittable:

As we mentioned, his second half ERA of 0.75 was the best in MLB history and he rattled off 12 wins to just one loss. His 0.41 ERA over the the last two months of the season was also the lowest since earned run average became an official stat in 1912. That included, of course, his 12-strikeout no-hitter against the Dodgers on Aug. 30:

Which he celebrated with champagne and pajamas:

Oh, and also, to get to 22 wins, you have to do some work on the offensive side of the ball. So the Cubs right-hander cracked two home runs and eight RBIs -- showing off some opposite-field power:

Now that he's officially won the Cy Young, we ask you all to go and shave Arrieta's face into your heads -- just as this young hero did back in October.