It’s been a quarter century since an American League pitcher won back-to-back Cy Young Awards.
It takes a pretty special pitcher to pull that off — but Tarik Skubal fits the bill.
Skubal showed why he’s the favorite to win the Cy Young for a second straight year, striking out 11 with no walks Sunday night in Detroit’s 2-1 victory over Texas. If the Cy Young indeed goes to him, he’ll be the first AL pitcher to earn it in back-to-back seasons since Pedro Martinez’s remarkable stretch with the Red Sox in 1999 and 2000.
Roger Clemens won consecutive Cy Youngs on two different occasions (1986-87 and 1997-98), and Jim Palmer did it in 1975 and ‘76. Those are the only AL pitchers besides Martinez to pull that off. It’s been a bit more common in the National League: Greg Maddux (1992-95) and Randy Johnson (1999-2002) both won four straight, and Tim Lincecum (2008-09), Clayton Kershaw (2013-14), Max Scherzer (2016-17) and Jacob deGrom (2018-19) are in the two-in-a-row club.
National Leaguer Sandy Koufax won the Cy Young in 1965 and 1966, back when there was only one award for both leagues.