LOS ANGELES (AFP) — San Diego Padres ace Blake Snell was named the National League Cy Young Award-winner on Wednesday, becoming the seventh pitcher to earn US baseball’s top pitching honor in both the American and National Leagues.
Snell, who won the American League award in 2018 while with the Tampa Bay Rays, delivered a dominant season for the Padres, posting a 1.20 earned run average over his final 23 starts in 2023.
Only Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson had a better mark over 23 straight starts in a single season, 0.85 in 1968.
Snell received 28 first-place votes in balloting of members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
New York Yankees hurler Gerrit Cole won the American League Cy Young, garnering all 30 first-place votes. For Cole it is a first Cy Young Award, after runner-up finishes in 2019 and 2021.
Overall, Snell went 14-9, delivering 234 strikeouts and holding opponents to a .152 batting average with runners in scoring position.
He joins Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer as pitchers to win the award in both leagues.
Cole went 15-4 and was a bright spot for the Yankees in a disappointing 2023 season.
He led the AL in eight pitching categories and thrust himself into the Cy Young conversation with an outstanding seven-start stretch to close the season, going 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 52 strikeouts.
