15 facts, figures about 2019 Cy Young winners

After a season of domination, the Mets' Jacob deGrom and the Astros' Justin Verlander were named 2019 Cy Young Award winners on Wednesday.

deGrom received 29 of the 30 first-place votes in the National League to join an elite group of back-to-back Cy Young Award winners. Verlander won an extremely close race with teammate Gerrit Cole to become a two-time winner in the AL -- he also won in 2011 with the Tigers.

Here are all the facts and figures you need to know about deGrom and Verlander's Cy Young seasons.

Pair of aces

1) deGrom and Verlander both won their second career Cy Young Award, making them the 20th and 21st pitchers to win multiple Cy Youngs.

The others to do it: Roger Clemens (seven), Randy Johnson (five), Steve Carlton (four), Greg Maddux (four), Clayton Kershaw (three), Sandy Koufax (three), Pedro Martinez (three), Jim Palmer (three), Max Scherzer (three), Tom Seaver (three) and two-time winners Bob Gibson, Tom Glavine, Roy Halladay, Corey Kluber, Tim Lincecum, Denny McLain, Gaylord Perry, Bret Saberhagen and Johan Santana.

2) deGrom and Verlander joined a very short list of pitchers to win both multiple Cy Young Awards and a Rookie of the Year Award. Only one other pitcher has done it: Seaver.

Verlander was AL Rookie of the Year with the Tigers in 2006 and won his first Cy Young Award in '11. deGrom was NL Rookie of the Year in 2014 before his back-to-back Cy Young Awards. Seaver won NL Rookie of the Year in 1967 and Cy Young Awards in 1969, '73 and '75.

3) Both Cy Young Award winners came from the same team as this year's Rookie of the Year Award winners -- Verlander and Yordan Alvarez for the Astros, deGrom and Pete Alonso for the Mets.

The last time a team swept both awards in either league was in 2015 -- and it happened in both leagues then, too. The Cubs' Jake Arrieta (Cy Young) and Kris Bryant (Rookie of the Year), and the Astros' Dallas Keuchel (Cy Young) and Carlos Correa (Rookie of the Year) were the winners. In fact, 2019 and '15 are the only times in the last 25 years that a team has had both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winners.

4) Verlander is the fourth Astros pitcher to win a Cy Young Award, after Dallas Keuchel (2015), Clemens (2004) and Mike Scott (1986). deGrom is the Mets' seventh Cy Young Award winner, including his back-to-back awards, R.A. Dickey's in 2012, Dwight Gooden's in 1985 and Seaver's three in 1969, '73 and '75.

deGromination

5) Only 10 pitchers before deGrom had won back-to-back Cy Young Awards -- seven in the NL, three in the AL.

Those 10: Scherzer, Kershaw, Lincecum, Johnson, Martinez, Clemens, Maddux, Palmer, McLain and Koufax.

6) Since the start of his back-to-back Cy Young run in 2018, deGrom has the lowest ERA of any regular starter. He's posted a 2.05 mark over the last two seasons, better than 2019 NL Cy Young runner-up Hyun-Jin Ryu (2.21), Verlander (2.55), Cole (2.68) and Scherzer (2.70).

7) Also since 2018, deGrom has made 47 starts in which he's allowed two or fewer runs. That's the most of any regular starting pitcher (i.e., excluding "opener" Ryne Stanek). Second on the list? Verlander, with 45.

8) deGrom’s quest for a Cy Young repeat was seemingly in jeopardy at the end of April, when his ERA sat at 4.85. But one could argue he was baseball’s best from that point forward, with a Major League-best 2.07 ERA from May 1 through the end of the year.

deGrom allowed three-plus runs in three consecutive starts to close the month of April, but he did so only five more times across his last 27 outings of the year.

9) Only five NL pitchers, including deGrom, reached 200 innings this year. deGrom’s ERA was the best of that bunch by 0.82. His 2.67 Fielding Independent Pitching also topped that quintet by a margin of 0.58.

Amazing Astros

10) Verlander and his Astros teammate Cole finished first and second in the AL Cy Young Award voting. They're only the fifth pair of teammates to take first and second in a season since the award was first given out in 1956.

The others: the D-backs' Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in both 2001 and '02, the Dodgers' Mike Marshall and Andy Messersmith in 1974 and the Dodgers' Don Newcombe and Sal Maglie in 1956.

11) That top-two Astros finish is no surprise. Verlander and Cole were one of the most dominant starting-pitching tandems in MLB history. They were only the second pair of teammates to both reach the 300-strikeout mark in the same season -- Verlander finished with an even 300, Cole with 326. The only other duo was Johnson and Schilling for the D-backs in 2002.

12) How stifling was Verlander? His 0.80 WHIP in 2019 ranks as the third lowest by any qualified pitcher in modern history, trailing only Pedro Martinez’s 0.74 in 2000 and Walter Johnson’s 0.78 in 1913. Verlander also held opponents to a .219 on-base percentage, the fourth-lowest mark allowed by any qualified pitcher.

13) Verlander's career-high 300 strikeouts put him in a group with Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson as the only modern-era pitchers to reach that milestone in their age-36 season or older. Ryan holds the record for the oldest 300-strikeout season, as he punched out 301 hitters with the 1989 Rangers at age 42.

14) Verlander’s 2019 season marked the second time in which a pitcher threw a no-hitter and went on to win the AL Cy Young Award. The first time? Also Verlander, with the Tigers in 2011.

15) Verlander’s gap of eight years between Cy Young Awards is the longest in MLB history, surpassing the seven-year span between NL Cy Young Awards for Glavine (1991-98).