Pirates Pitcher Paul Skenes Wins NL Cy Young Award

PITTSBURGH, PA — In just his second season in the big leagues, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes on Wednesday became the National League Cy Young Award winner. It's given to the best pitcher in the National and American leagues.

Skenes was the unanimous choice in the balloting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America, collecting all 30 first-place votes Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies came in second and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers placed third.

Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers won the American League Cy Young.

Skenes had a mediocre 10-10 won-lost record through no fault of his own. The offensively inept Pirates, who lost 91 games last season, often gave him little run support.

But statistically, Skenes' numbers were incomparable. He finished with a 1.97 ERA, 216 strikeouts and a 0.95 WHIP.

Skenes is the third Pirate to win the award. Vernon Law took it in 1960 and Doug Dr, joining Vern Law (1960) and Doug Drabek won it in 1990. Skenes is the only on of those three to be a unanimous selection.