Tigers’ Tarik Skubal and Braves’ Chris Sale win first Cy Young Awards

By Wayne Sterling, CNN

(CNN) — Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves’ Chris Sale were voted the best pitchers in the majors for the first time by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Wednesday.

Skubal and Sale won the American League (AL) and National League (NL) Cy Young Awards, respectively.

Skubal was a unamimous winner, earning all 30 first-place votes.

Both left-handers were pitching Triple Crown winners for their respective leagues as they led in wins, earned run average (ERA) and strikeouts.

This is just the third time since 1967 that lefties won the Cy Young in both leagues in the same year.

The Cy Young Awards were voted on prior to the start of the postseason.

Breakout season for Skubal

Skubal, who won the award on his 28th birthday, had a breakout year in his fourth full MLB season.

Skubal finished with an 18-4 record, a career-best 2.39 ERA and an MLB-leading 228 strikeouts, making the 2024 All-MLB First Team. He tied Sale for the most wins in Major League Baseball. The 18 wins are a career-best for both pitchers.

“It’s pretty special,” the southpaw said on MLB Network. “All the hard work, all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, moments like this makes it extremely worth it.”

Skubal helped the Tigers make the team’s first postseason in 10 years. Detroit was 21-10 in games he started and 65-66 when Skubal wasn’t on the mound.

He is the fifth different Tigers’ pitcher to take home the honor.

Kansas City Royals starter Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians reliever Emmanuel Clase was third.

Another honor for Sale

Sale was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA in his first season with the Braves.

Sale led the majors in ERA and struck out an NL-best 225 batters in 177.2 innings pitched. He was named to the 2024 All-MLB First Team.

The Lakeland, Florida native also defended his position to near perfection as he picked up his first Gold Glove Award. Sale did not commit an error this season.

“It wasn’t just me rolling out there. … I gave up one unearned run this year. One. So that means my guys in the field were making unbelievable plays,” the eight-time All-Star said on MLB Network. “It seems like I go out there, pitch two or three innings, I’ll have five runs on the board. You get to the bullpen, I mean absolute lockdown. … A lot goes into this.

“I can’t express how thankful I am for everybody that stuck by me. It would have been easy to kind of jump ship and right me off. I had a lot of people text me through the tough times and I’m thankful for them, and I’m happy to share this moment with them.”

Sale beat out Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year and Pittsburgh Pirates flamethrower Paul Skenes.

The 35-year-old earned 26 of 30 first-place votes. Wheeler received the other four votes.

Sale is the fifth different Braves’ hurler to win the coveted award and first since Tom Glavine in 1998.

Last week, Sale notched yet another honor as he was named Comeback Player of the Year.

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