Pitching Triple Crown winner Chris Sale takes National League Cy Young Award

Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves left-handed, took home the National League Cy Young Award.

Leading National League pitchers in victories (18-3 record), Sale obtained run average (2.38) and strikeouts (225), thereby ranking ninth among league "triple crown" winners to win the Cy Young Award. In all three of his Cy Young Award seasons—1963, "65, "66— Sandy Koufax emerged with the triple crown. Steve Carlton ( 1972), Dwight Gooden ( 1985), Randy Johnson (2002), Jake Peavy (2007) and Clayton Kershaw (2011) were the others. The American League has had six such incidents.

A Braves pitcher has won the Cy Young Award eight times now. Sale ties three-time winner Greg Maddux (1993–95), two-time winner Tom Glavine (1991, "98), John Smoltz (1996), and Warren Spahn (1957).

In Cy Young Award voting, Sale's past best finish was in 2018 in the AL while a Boston Red Sox member. He came second behind Corey Kluber of Cleveland. While with the Chicago White Sox in a race also won by Kluber, Sale was third in the AL in 2014.

For Zack Wheeler, who also finished second to Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes in 2021, this is the second runner-up result in NL Cy Young Award voting.

Third-ranked Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed Paul Skenes had the best finish of a rookie since Jose Fernandez ran third to champion Clayton Kershaw and runner-up Adam Wainwright in 2013. The only rookie to win the Cy Young Award, in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fernando Valenzuela passed away this year.

The only pitchers named on every ballot were Sale and Wheeler.

Ballots were cast before the playoffs. They are totaled on a method whereby first place earns seven points, second place four, third place three, fourth place two votes, and fifth place one point.

The thirty separate ballots that two writers representing each National League city sent in are broken out below. See our Voting FAQ for additional voting-related information.