Greinke, Kershaw finish 2-3 in Cy Young race
Cubs righty Arrieta wins BBWAA honor, ends LA lefty's run at two straight
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers rotation mates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw finished second and third behind 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta of the Cubs, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced on Wednesday.
Arrieta received 17 first-place votes and 169 points, while Greinke had 10 first-place votes and 147 points and Kershaw three first-place votes and 101 points.
Greinke and Kershaw were the eighth set of teammates to place second and third in the balloting. The others: San Francisco's Jack Sanford and Billy Pierce in 1962; Houston's Joe Niekro and J.R. Richard in '79; Atlanta's Greg Maddux and Denny Neagle in '97; San Diego's Trevor Hoffman and Kevin Brown in '98; Atlanta's Tom Glavine and Maddux in 2000; St. Louis' Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in '09; and Philadelphia's Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee in '11.
NL Cy Young Award Voting -- Top 5
| Pitcher, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Arrieta, CHC | 17 | 11 | 2 | 169 | ||
| Zack Greinke, LAD | 10 | 17 | 3 | 147 | ||
| Clayton Kershaw, LAD | 3 | 2 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 101 |
| Gerrit Cole, PIT | 2 | 13 | 8 | 40 | ||
| Max Scherzer, WSH | 13 | 6 | 32 |
The 32-year-old Greinke, a free agent, went 19-3 for the Dodgers with a 1.66 ERA, the lowest in MLB in 20 years. Greinke won the American League Cy Young Award in 2009 while with the Kansas City Royals.
Greinke was bidding to become the sixth pitcher in Major League history to win a Cy Young Award in each league, following Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Gaylord Perry and Halladay.
Arrieta said he realized during the season that he and Greinke were headed for a showdown.
"There are times when I would sit back and think, 'Wow, this is incredible, what he's doing,'" said Arrieta. "You see his line every five days, but it doesn't surprise you. He's done it for a long time. The same thing with Kershaw.
"There are those competitive moments that I think each of us have. We know what we're capable of, we know what the other guy is capable of as well, but deep down inside, we think we can catch him or do just a little bit better, and that's what makes all of us the pitchers that we are."
Video: Clayton Kershaw voted third for NL Cy Young Award
The 27-year-old Kershaw went 16-7 with a 2.13 ERA and an MLB-high 301 strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher to crack the 300-K barrier in 13 years while winning his third consecutive league strikeout title.
Kershaw remains tied with Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax as the club's all-time leader in Cy Young Awards with three, with the pair just two of nine men to have won the award at least three times. Kershaw won the award in 2011, '13 and '14, finishing second in '12.
Video: Kershaw comes in third in NL Cy Young award voting
Kershaw received a $500,000 bonus for finishing third and would have received $1 million with a win. For finishing second, Greinke would have increased his 2016 salary by $500,000 if he hadn't exercised an opt-out and voided the final three years of his contract in order to become a free agent.
Ballots from two writers in each league city -- submitted prior to postseason play -- are tabulated on a system that awards seven points for first place, four points for second place, three points for third place, two votes for fourth place and one point for fifth place.