Left-hander Clayton Kershaw won the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday, becoming the first Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher to be so honored since Eric Gagne in 2003 and the first Dodgers starter to win it since Orel Hershiser in 1988.
Kershaw won the award handily in balloting by a select panel of 32 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He received 27 of 32 first-place votes, three seconds and two thirds for a total of 207 points, 74 more than runner-up Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Halladay received four first-place votes, with the last one going to the Phillies' Cliff Lee.
Kershaw, 23, tied for the National League lead in wins with 21 while losing just five times. He also led the league in both ERA (2.28) and strikeouts (248), giving him pitching's version of the Triple Crown. He also was named to his first All-Star team and pitched a perfect fifth inning in a 5-1 NL victory.
In his fourth season in the majors, Kershaw set career bests in wins, ERA, strikeouts, games started (33) and innings pitched (233 1/3), and he also had a WHIP under one (0.977) for the first time. He posted two shutouts and three other complete games.
He was especially tough after the All-Star break -- his own second-half resurgence mirrored that of the team -- going 12-1 with a 1.31 ERA and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 5-to-1. He didn't lose after Aug. 7, winning his final eight decisions and eight of his final nine starts, and allowing no more than one run in seven of those starts.
The most compelling subplot of Kershaw's season, arguably, was his four starts against San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum, a former two-time Cy Young Award winner and a pitcher who, as a college junior, was drafted three spots lower lower than Kershaw in the first round in 2006. Kershaw was a high school senior when he was drafted.
Kershaw won all four showdowns against Lincecum, by scores of 2-1, 1-0, 2-1 and 2-1, the first of those victories coming in Kershaw's first career Opening Day start. Kershaw allowed a total of one earned run across those starts, giving up 16 hits in 30 1/3 innings while striking out 36 and walking five.
Kershaw joins Dodgers pitchers Don Newcombe (1956), Don Drysdale (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963, '65 and '66), Mike Marshall (1974), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Hershiser and Gagne as Cy Young winners. Newcombe, Drysdale and Koufax all won their awards when the Cy Young was given to just one major league pitcher. The award was split between the leagues beginning in 1967.
