Rick Porcello Wins AL Cy Young Award
BOSTON (CBS) -- For just the seventh time, the American League Cy Young winner has come from the Red Sox rotation.
Rick Porcello, a 22-game winner for Boston in 2016, took home the AL Cy Young award, Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday. The 22 wins for the Boston righty led the American League, with his 3.15 ERA ranking fifth in the AL.
Porcello set a career high with 189 strikeouts over 223 innings of work, and led the AL with a 5.91 strikeout/walk ratio, issuing just 32 free passes during the regular season. He tossed three complete games throughout the season, and pitched at least seven innings in 16 of his 33 starts. Porcello solidified a shaky Boston staff early in the season by going 5-0 in April, and finished the season by winning eight of his last 10 starts.
After going 5-7 at Fenway Park in 2015, his first season with the Red Sox, Porcello was lights out in front of his home fans in 2016, going 13-1 with a 2.97 ERA in Boston.
Porcello beat out Cleveland's Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14 ERA with 227 strikeouts) and Detroit's Justin Verlander (16-9, 3.04 with 254 strikeouts) to win this season's Cy Young. He is the first Red Sox pitcher to win the award since Pedro Martinez won back-to-back AL Cy Young awards in 1999 and 2000.
