Tony Plate - DeGrom Wins 10th Game and Maybe the Cy Young Award

Jacob deGrom made a strong case for the National League CY Young Award. He pitched another fantastic game as he and the New York Mets defeated the National League Champion Atlanta Braves 3-0 last Thursday. He was dominant and won his tenth game by throwing eight superb innings allowing two hits and striking out ten. He achieved his one thousandth career strikeout by striking out Ozzie Albies and retired the last twenty batters he faced. deGrom gave up no more than three runs in his last twenty-nine starts to extended his own single-season record which is amazing. He finished the season with a 10-9 record, a 1.70 ERA, 32 games started,217 innings pitched, 269 strikeouts, allowing 10 home runs and 46 walks. Also, deGrom’s last 24 starts were all quality starts with at least six innings pitched with no more than three earned runs allowed. This was one of the best individual pitching seasons in Major League Baseball history.

As for deGrom’s opposing challengers to the CY Young Award Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies ended his dominant season last Saturday against the Braves by pitching seven shutout innings allowing two singles and striking out eight as the Phillies defeated the Braves. He finished the season 17-6 with a 2.37 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 224 strikeouts in 212 1/3 innings which is impressive. Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals finished his impressive season last week with a victory over the Miami Marlins by throwing six scoreless innings and ten strikeouts which enabled him to achieve 300 strikeouts for the season along with 150 hits allowed which is the fewest allowed by a pitcher with 300 strikeouts in a season. He went 18-7 with a 2.53 ERA and over 220 innings pitched with a WHIP of 0.911. The Nationals decided not to pitch Scherzer in their final game of the season last Sunday which surprised me a little bit even though the game was played at Coors field, because Scherzer could have added to his statistics since he is going for another CY Young Award especially his fantastic strikeout total.

All three pitchers had a tremendous season. It was a pleasure to watch them pitch. It is unfortunate that the CY Young Award could not be split up in three ways for these three great pitchers. All baseball fans will look forward to know who will be the winner of this prestigious award.