Skubal, Skenes bag Cy Young Awards

NEW YORK (AFP) — Detroit’s Tarik Skubal won his second straight American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday and Paul Skenes was named National League (NL) winner as Major League Baseball’s top pitchers.

Skubal became the first American League (AL) repeat Cy Young winner since Pedro Martinez in 2000, receiving 26 of 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Skubal didn’t match his 2024 pitching Triple Crown — topping the AL in wins, strikeouts and earned-run-average (ERA).

But the dominant left-hander posted a lower ERA — 2.21 to 2.39 — and struck out more batters — 241 to 228 — than he did in 2024.

Skubal was one of five AL pitchers to throw a shutout this season, a complete-game two-hitter against the Cleveland Guardians that featured 13 strikeouts without a walk.

His 94th and final pitch of that game was a 102.6 mph fastball for a strikeout — the hardest pitch of his career.

“It’s an individual award, obviously, but I’m proud of our team,” Skubal said during the televised announcement of the awards.

“I’m proud of the way we competed this year.”

A September swoon saw the Tigers tumble out of first place in the AL Central division, but they punched their ticket to the playoffs and beat the Guardians in the wild card round before falling to the Seattle Mariners in the AL division series.

“We went through some adversity late in the season but came back in the playoffs and competed,” Skubal said. “Came up short, but a lot of credit for this award goes to the guys that play behind me and the guys behind the dish, too.”

Skenes was a unanimous selection for the NL honor, adding it to the Rookie of the Year award he bagged last year.

The only other pitchers to win Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young within the first two seasons of their MLB careers were Fernando Valenzuela — who won both in 1981 — and Dwight Gooden in 1984 and 1985.

Skenes finished 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA and 216 strikeouts for the Pirates, allowing just 11 home runs.

In award voting, he finished ahead of Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sanchez, who received all 30 second-place votes.

Los Angeles Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was third in the voting, which is based only on regular-season performance and didn’t take into account his stunning post-season exploits: two complete games and a World Series game seven appearance out of the bullpen that saw the Dodgers seal a second straight crown and earned Yamamoto World Series Most Valuable Player honors.