Miami’s Alcantara unanimous choice for NL Cy Young Award

By Kristie Rieken, The Associated Press on November 16, 2022.

HOUSTON (AP) – Miami’s Sandy Alcantara won the National League Cy Young Award unanimously on Wednesday night after posting a 2.28 ERA while pitching a major league-best 228 2/3 innings and six compete games.

Alcantara received all 30 first-place votes, the 15th time the NL has had a unanimous winner. Atlanta’s Max Fried was second with 72 points, including 10 second-place votes, and Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Julio Urías was third 66 points and seven second-place votes.

It’s the first Cy Young for the 27-year-old from the Dominican Republic, who becomes the first Marlins player to receive the honor.

Alcantara’s six complete games were the most in the majors since Chris Sale had six in 2016. The two-time All-Star went 14-9 and threw seven or more innings in 13 straight starts from May 11-July 15, which was the longest such streak since 2014.

Alcantara’s innings pitched and wins were both career highs and his ERA was his best in six seasons and ranked second in the NL.

He joins Pedro Martinez (1997) as the only player born in the Dominican Republic to win the NL award. Martinez also won twice in the AL (1999, 2000) and the other Dominican winner in the AL was Bartolo Colon in 2005.

Urías was 17-7 and led the NL with a 2.16 ERA to help the Dodgers lead the majors with 111 wins in the regular season. The left-hander had 166 strikeouts after a 2021 season in which he led the majors with 20 wins.

Fried was 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA and 170 strikeouts. He was a first-time All-Star and helped lead the Braves to their fifth straight NL East crown.

Houston’s Justin Verlander, Toronto’s Alek Manoah and Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox were the finalists for the AL Cy Young Award, to be announced later Wednesday.

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