The National League Cy Young award goes to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw — the third time he's won it. He led both the American and National Leagues in wins this year and also had the lowest earned run average in the major leagues. Kershaw threw a no-hitter in June against the Colorado Rockies, where just one fielding error kept him from a perfect game. He also helped lead the Dodgers to a division title. And he did all of that while missing more than a month with a back injury.
This is Kershaw's second Cy Young in a row, and his third overall. He swept the voting this year, winning all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America — just the 14th pitcher to do so. Kershaw is also the 12th Dodger to win the award and the only Dodger other than Sandy Koufax to win three.
The race for the American League Cy Young was much closer. After having never received a single vote in previous years, Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians took it home this year, narrowly beating out the Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez 169-159. Kluber notched 18 wins and was especially dominant in the second half of the season for a Cleveland squad that missed the playoffs.
In spite of two lackluster performances in the postseason, Kershaw is a contender to also win the NL's Most Valuable Player award. In the AL, Mike Trout of the LA Angels has been the favorite for months. Those announcements will come Thursday.
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