The Mets Sweep the Cy Young Board (With More to Come?)

Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw are going to be the top three finishers in this year’s NL Cy Young Award voting. This is about as much of a lock as sports award voting gets. They have been that dominant, and that far ahead of the pack. Dave Cameron has written here several times on the race between those three and no others, and that settles things for me.

This means the New York Mets have done something no other baseball team ever has: they have beaten the top three finishers in their league’s Cy Young voting in a single postseason. They defeated Kershaw in Game 1 of the NLDS, aced out Greinke in the deciding Game 5, and on Sunday night, in Game 2 of the NLCS, Arrieta took an L for the first time since July 25 (or June 16, if you give him a pass for getting beaten by Cole Hamels‘ no-hitter).

Yes, yes, I know: it’s probably best to “Kill The Win,” which strongly implies collateral damage upon the loss. I acknowledge the arbitrary component that goes into assignment of pitcher losses. However, if I let that forestall me, we won’t have any fun and we won’t learn anything. So instead let’s have some fun and learn something.

It isn’t just a single-league mark the Mets have set. If you count the top three finishers in both leagues, only the 2015 Mets have ever beaten three top-three vote-getters in one postseason. They join eleven clubs that have managed to beat two.

Amazingly, four of those came when there was just one Cy Young Award voted for the whole major leagues. Beginning with the very first year of balloting, the 1956 Yankees beat both winner Don Newcombe and runner-up Sal Maglie in that year’s World Series against the Dodgers. (Maglie’s was the ultimate hard-luck loss against Don Larsen’s perfect game.) Also, third place in that year’s Cy went to Whitey Ford, whom Brooklyn beat in Game 1. It happened again in 1958 (Yankees vs. #2 Warren Spahn and #3 Lew Burdette), 1959 (Dodgers vs. winner Early Wynn and #3 Bob Shaw), and 1962 (Yankees vs. #2 Jack Sanford and #3 Billy Pierce).

Then there were some special cases, years with just one pitcher getting votes as there was just one slot on the ballot. Sandy Koufax was the unanimous Cy Young winner in 1965 and ’66, and both years he got beaten in the World Series, by the ’65 Twins and ’66 Orioles. The award split to one per league after that, and in 1968 both unanimous winners, Bob Gibson and Denny McLain, lost games in the Series.

If you want to count those as equivalent to what the Mets have done, go right ahead. I did say we were going to have fun.

The closest a team has ever gotten to three Cy Young “medalists” (top three) beaten in one postseason is probably the 1990 Reds. They beat NL winner Doug Drabek in the NLCS, then dumped AL #3 Dave Stewart twice in the Fall Classic. They also won a game started by AL Cy winner Bob Welch, but he escaped the loss. Welch left the game with two men on and a one-run lead. Had both scored, Cincinnati would have done the deed first, but only one did, and the game went to extras before the Reds triumphed.

(They hung the loss on Dennis Eckersley, fifth in the voting despite an 0.61 ERA and 48 saves. If Bobby Thigpen hadn’t picked that year to set a record with 57 saves, Eck might have finished higher on the ballot. It’s not only wins and losses that can be arbitrary.)

If the Reds weren’t the closest call, it’s definitely the 2001 Yankees. They beat AL #2 Mark Mulder in the ALDS and #3 Freddy Garcia in the ALCS. They then faced the Diamondbacks, with NL Cy winner Randy Johnson and runner-up Curt Schilling. As you may recall, that dynamic duo went a combined 4-0 in the World Series. Can’t say the Yankees didn’t have their chance.

If you’re looking for precedent, the Mets are looking very good now. Eight of the eleven teams to beat two Cy Young medalists won the World Series. Two others lost the Series, and only the 1981 Expos managed the feat (NL Cy winner Fernando Valenzuela and #3 Steve Carlton) without winning the pennant. Of course, it’s a lot easier to do well when beating your opponent’s aces, so this gets mildly tautological.

Still, the Mets may have an opportunity to do even better. Should Toronto mount a comeback and beat Kansas City, while the Mets hold off Chicago, New York will be facing David Price, who is a near-lock to finish at least third in the AL Cy Young race, and might win it. Should they put one in his L column, the Mets would have set an almost unbreakable mark.

All it took was the best pitchers in their league being on playoff teams, and some fortuitous seeding. Oh, and beating some of the best pitchers in baseball.