Scherzer, Porcello Named Cy Young Award Winners

By ESPN

Nationals ace Max Scherzer was named the National League Cy Young Award winner in a landslide on Wednesday, garnering 25 of the 30 first-place votes to become the team's first recipient of the award.

The winner of the 2013 American League Cy Young Award for the Detroit Tigers, Scherzer becomes the sixth pitcher to win Cy Youngs in both leagues, joining Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roy Halladay, Roger Clemens and Gaylord Perry.

The award was announced live on MLB Network, with a vacationing Scherzer joining the broadcast via videoconference from a scuba diving boat off the coast of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

"It's such an accomplishment," Scherzer said. "I mean, there's so many people to thank -- all my teammates, for going out and competing the whole season, for everything they did for me. I can't thank them enough for everything they did."

Scherzer said he wants to find a way to be better in 2017.

"I've been dreaming up different ways to do it, but until we get to spring training, that will be my thing -- to find a new way," Scherzer said. "But right now, it's all about celebrating what happened in 2016."

Cubs ace Jon Lester was the runner-up, with one first-place vote from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Chicago teammate Kyle Hendricks came in third with two first-place votes. The other two first-place votes went to the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, who finished fifth overall in voting.

Scherzer led the majors in strikeouts (284) and WHIP (0.97), while leading the NL in wins (20), innings (228.1) and pitching WAR (6.2) and being tied for first in quality starts (26) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.07). Unfortunately for Scherzer, he also led the NL in home runs given up (31), making him the first pitcher since Johnson in 1999 to give up at least 30 homers and still win a Cy Young Award.

Perhaps most notably, Scherzer authored just the fourth 20-strikeout performance in baseball history this season, as he baffled the Tigers in a May victory.

Porcello Named AL Cy Young Winner

For the first half-dozen seasons of his career, Rick Porcello pitched in the shadows of Cy Young Award-winning teammates Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

Now, he walks among them.

One year after succumbing to the weight of a lucrative contract extension and losing 15 games for the Boston Red Sox, Porcello won the American League Cy Young Award, edging Verlander -- much to the chagrin of the Detroit Tigers ace's fiancée, Kate Upton -- by a narrow margin in voting that was announced Wednesday night by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Porcello became only the fourth pitcher to claim a Cy Young Award with the Red Sox, joining Jim Lonborg (1967), Roger Clemens (1986, 1987, 1990) and Pedro Martinez (1999, 2000).

"It's pretty incredible to be mentioned with those three other Red Sox players, and then Pedro and Roger," Porcello said on a conference call from his parents' home in New Jersey, where he received the news. "It definitely doesn't feel right, right now, just because I grew up watching those guys. They were my idols growing up, and I had the utmost admiration for what they've done in the game. To be in that category is -- I can't express my gratitude. It's pretty humbling. I never thought I'd be in that position to mention my name with those guys."

Porcello, a 27-year-old right-hander, was a first-round pick of the Tigers in 2007 and made his major league debut two years later at age 20. But he entered this season with a 4.39 career ERA and hadn't even been an All-Star, to say nothing of a Cy Young candidate.

It was nothing short of a dream season, then, for Porcello, who led the majors with 22 wins and a 5.906 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He ranked behind Verlander and fellow Cy Young finalist Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians in both ERA (3.15) and strikeouts (189), but Porcello's candidacy was built on his mind-numbing consistency. He allowed three or fewer runs in 27 of 33 starts and pitched into the seventh inning 23 times, racking up a career-high 223 innings.