Kershaw wins NL Cy Young Award

NEW YORK (AP) - Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL Cy Young Award in a runaway Thursday.

Kershaw received 27 of 32 first-place votes, five seconds and two thirds for 207 points in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Philadelphia's Roy Halladay, last year's winner, was second with four first-place votes, 21 seconds and seven thirds for 133 points. Phillies teammate Cliff Lee was third with 90 points, followed by Arizona's Ian Kennedy with 76 points.

With a big curveball that might be the best in baseball, Kershaw won the NL's pitching triple crown. Pitching on a team that went 82-79, he led the league with a 2.28 ERA and 248 strikeouts and with a 21-5 record tied Kennedy for most wins.

The 23-year-old left-hander, whose previous high for victories was 13 in 2010, dominated the league during the final two months of the season, going 8-0 with a 0.96 ERA in his final nine starts.

Kershaw was 5-0 against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, going 4-0 with a 0.30 ERA in head-to-head matchups with Tim Lincecum, the 2008 and 2009 winner.

His .207 opponents' batting average was the second-lowest in the major leagues among qualified pitchers, trailing only Detroit's Justin Verlander (.192), the unanimous AL Cy Young winner. Kershaw was especially effective at Dodger Stadium, where he went 12-1 with the lowest home ERA in the big leagues at 1.69.

Los Angeles has a chance to sweep the two major NL awards. Matt Kemp is a favorite to win the MVP, which is announced Tuesday.

It was the 10th Cy Young won by the Dodgers, following Don Newcombe (1956), Don Drysdale (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965 and 1966), Mike Marshall (1974), Orel Hershiser (1988) and Eric Gagne (2003).