Yesterday, Nov. 13, Max Scherzer won the Cy Young Award for the American League of Major League Baseball. In the National League, Clayton Kershaw took home the crown. These two winning the award wasn’t very surprising, but it was good to see these two talented pitchers be honored in such a way.

Max Scherzer

Scherzer is currently the starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. In the American League, Scherzer received 28 out of the 30 first place votes for this award. He didn’t have a perfect season, but he was still definitely deserving of the Cy Young. Scherzer was 21-3, and started all of the 32 games he played in. He also boasted a 2.90 ERA. Scherzer had the 5^th highest winning percentage for a pitcher who has won 20 games, with .875. He also was the 4^th Tigers Pitcher to win the coveted award. Also, Scherzer threw for more than 200 innings for the first time in his career. At 29, Scherzer has a few years to improve, potentially win another Cy Young or two, and help the Tigers become World Series Champions. The Tigers have come so close to being champions in the past couple years; they’re bound to get it soon (I hope I didn’t just jynx them). Detroit finished the season 93-69. They were taken out by the eventual World Champs, the Red Sox, in the American League Champions. Scherzer becomes a free agent in a year, but has expressed that he would want to definitely stay with the Tigers. But that’s the future. For now, Max Scherzer gets to celebrate his award.

Clayton Kershaw

In the National League, Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw took the Cy Young. He received 29 of the 30 votes. This season, Kershaw had 16 wins with 9 losses. He had an impressive ERA of 1.83, giving him the best ERA in the Majors for three years now. Kershaw is the 17^th Pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards. His last Cy Young was in 2011, which he won at age 23.  Kershaw is the 34^th starter to have an ERA under 2.00 since 1950, which doesn’t sound that amazing, but it is. Especially considering that 21 of those 33 were in one of the best decades of pitching between 1963 -1972. His 1.83 was the lowest ERA in the major leagues in the past 13 years.  The Dodgers were 93-70 this season. They lost the National League Championship to the St. Louis Cardinals.

It can be argued that out of the two, Kershaw is the better pitcher. It also interesting that both winners lost in their League Championships. But, I’m sure both these pitchers are trying to change that for the next season. So who knows, maybe Scherzer and Kershaw will face each other in the World Series next year.