After nearly two years in recovery from Tommy John, Justin Verlander got the World Series monkey off his back winning his first game ever in the fall classic. Now he adds a third Cy Young to his trophy case. joining Miami’s Sandy Alcantara in the National League as unanimous selections.
For just the second time in the history of the award both AL and NL pitchers were unanimous selections. You’d have to jump into the wayback machine to 1968 when e Detroit’s Denny McLain in the AL and St. Louis’ Bob Gibson in the NL swept the voting.
Verlander took home both the MVP and Cy Young in 2011 and then his second Cy in 2019. He is the eleventh player to win three. He is just the fourth AL pitcher to win the award unanimously TWICE. Roger Clemens did it back in (1986 and 1998 ) Pedro Martinez did it in (1999 and 2000) while Johan Santana (2004, 2006). Verlander’s 18 wins led the AL, and he had 185 strikeouts to give him 3,198 in his career, the most among active players.
Sandy Alcantara became the first Marlins pitcher to win the award ( color me shocked ) pitching a major league-best 228 2/3 innings. He had a 2.28 ERA on the season and six complete games. It’s the first Cy Young Award for the 27-year-old from the Dominican Republic, He is the third Dominican-born pitcher to win a Cy Young Award. (Bartolo Colon in 2005 and the aforementioned three timer , Pedro Martinez in 2000, 1999 and '97)....
Alcantara’s six complete games were the most in the majors since Chris Sale had six in 2016. He went 14-9 in 32 starts with an ERA of (2.28) and 207 K’s. He threw seven or more innings in 13 straight starts from May 11-July 15. Talk about a workhorse.
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