Clayton Kershaw Wins 2014 NL Cy Young: Voting Results, Comments, Reaction

For the second consecutive season and third time in four years, Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has won the National League Cy Young Award.   

Kershaw claimed the award in a unanimous vote:

Yahoo Sports' Big League Stew tweeted the results of the top three:

SportsCenter and ESPN Stats & Info put the accomplishment into perspective:

The only question about Kershaw's most recent Cy Young wasn't whether it would happen, but whether the voting would be unanimous. That was the only thing he had never done, as voters awarded him 27 of 32 first-place votes in 2011 and 29 of 30 in 2013.

This year seemed like the best chance for Kershaw to become the first unanimous NL Cy Young winner since Roy Halladay in 2010. The 26-year-old led the league with 21 wins, a 1.77 ERA, six complete games, a 0.86 WHIP and 10.85 strikeouts per nine innings.

In fact, Kershaw's chances of winning the Cy Young were so strong that oddsmakers stopped taking bets on the award, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times:

Not that Kershaw was easy to hit at any point, but Jesse Spector of Sporting News noted that he seemed to be better late in games:

Advanced metrics also told a compelling story for Kershaw. He led the league in ERA+ (197) and fielding independent ERA (1.81), per Baseball-Reference.com. He won the NL ERA title for the fourth straight year.

In the American League, the Cleveland Indians' Corey Kluber topped Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez to win his first Cy Young Award.

After winning his second Cy Young last year, Kershaw told John Schlegel of MLB.com that hearing his name called never gets old no matter how many times it happens.

"Whether you expect to win or you don't, just to hear your name called—it does something to you," Kershaw said. "I'm not big on individual stats or awards or anything like that, because ultimately I think we play this game to win a World Series. No ifs, ands or buts after that. That's the goal."

Even though Kershaw doesn't seem big on individual honors, he should start getting used to them. He's just the ninth pitcher ever to win at least three Cy Young Awards. At 26, considering he seems to get better each year, many more will likely come his way.

One more honor may come his way as soon as Thursday: Kershaw is one of three finalists for the NL Most Valuable Player award, along with outfielders Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins.

The Dodgers just have to figure out how to get over the St. Louis-sized hump in the playoffs so Kershaw can add a World Series title to his collection of individual honors. While there's time to make that happen, today is about celebrating the greatness of baseball's best pitcher.

Stats via Baseball Reference

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