Rick Porcello Wins AL Cy Young Award

Rick Porcello has won the 2016 American league Cy Young Award.

Detroit's Justin Verlander received 14 first-place votes to only eight for Porcello, but the Boston right-hander got 18 second-place votes compared to Verlander's two to enable him to win in a very close race.

Pitcher, Team            1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   Points
Rick Porcello, Red Sox      8    18     2     1     1     137
Justin Verlander, Tigers   14     2     5     4     3     132
Corey Kluber, Indians       3     6    12     8     1      98
Zach Britton, Orioles       5     3     2     5     9      72
Chris Sale, White Sox             1     4     9     6      40
J.A. Happ, Blue Jays                    3     2     1      14
Aaron Sanchez, Blue Jays                1           3       6
Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees                      1     4       6
Andrew Miller, Yankees/Indians          1                   3
Michael Fulmer, Tigers                              1       1
Jose Quintana, White Sox                            1       1

BBWAA:

The five-point differential is the second closest of any election since ballots permitted voting for more than one pitcher in 1970. Verlander, who was not listed on two ballots, also finished second in the 2012 election to the Tampa Bay Rays' David Price, 153-149.

Ian Browne, MLB.com:

In 27 of Porcello's 33 starts, he allowed three earned runs or fewer. In nearly half of his starts -- 16 of them -- he permitted two earned runs or fewer. And on nine occasions, Porcello gave up one or zero earned runs.

Then there was the durability. Not only did the 27-year-old make every start, but he never went fewer than five innings. In fact, he lasted fewer than six innings a remarkable three times all year. ...

Porcello led the Majors with 22 wins, the most by a Boston pitcher since Martinez's 23-4 masterpiece in 1999.

Check out various other portions of the leaderboard, and Porcello isn't hard to find. He was fifth in the AL in ERA (3.15), second in WHIP (1.01), fourth in innings (223), second in BB/9 (1.29) and first in the Majors with a 5.91 SO/BB ratio. ...

When the pennant race heated up, so did Porcello. From June 28 through the end of the season, Porcello turned in 17 quality starts in his final 18 outings.