New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey denied Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw’s quest for a second straight Cy Young Award on Wednesday, winning the award given to the league’s best pitcher for the first time at age 37.
The veteran knuckleballer went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA for a moribund Mets club, equaling his win total from the last three seasons combined.
Kershaw led the National League in ERA (2.53) and fell one short of Dickey for the strikeout title, with 229 in 227 2/3 innings. Dickey also led the league in starts (33), complete games (5) and shutouts (3).
Kershaw led the NL in wins (21-5), strikeouts (248) and ERA (2.28) while winning the award last year.
Since 1967, past Dodger Cy Young runner-ups include Ramon Martinez (’90), Fernando Valenzuela (’86), Jerry Reuss (’80), Burt Hooton (’78), Tommy John (’77) and Andy Messersmith (’74, when teammate Mike Marshall won the award).
Dickey was listed first on 27 of the 32 ballots. Kershaw appeared first on two ballots (those of Tim Brown from Yahoo! Sports and Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com). He got 11 second-place votes, 10 third-place votes, one fourth-place vote and six fifth-place votes. He was left off two ballots entirely (Bill Center, UTSanDiego.com, and Miami-based writer Alvin Valdez of the Spanish publication Hoy).
Gonzalez, Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto and Atlanta closer Craig Kimbrel garnered one first-place vote each. Complete voting below, via the Baseball Writers’ Association of America:
| Pitcher, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R.A. Dickey, Mets | 27 | 5 | 209 | |||
| Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers | 2 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 96 |
| Gio Gonzalez, Nationals | 1 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 93 |
| Johnny Cueto, Reds | 1 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 75 |
| Craig Kimbrel, Braves | 1 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 41 | |
| Matt Cain, Giants | 1 | 6 | 7 | 22 | ||
| Kyle Lohse, Cardinals | 2 | 2 | 6 | |||
| Aroldis Chapman, Reds | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Cole Hamels, Phillies | 1 | 1 |
