Update: It's now a 4-man race for AL Cy Young Award (with Rick Porcello in the thick of it)

Yesterday, I wrote about Rick Porcello's chances to win the American League Cy Young Award.  At the time there were five worthy candidates.  But after getting rocked for seven earned runs in 1.2 innings last night, Cole Hamels (who's ERA jumped from 2.91 to 3.25) is currently out of the running.  Justin Verlander and Chris Sale both received no-decisions in their head-to-head matchup Monday, leaving the top four candidates with the following numbers:

Screenshot from ESPN.com

Porcello, Verlander, Sale and Corey Kluber now own the four best WHIPs in the AL.  They also have very similar ERAs, all among the top 10.  The major difference in Porcello's case is that he has significantly fewer strikeouts than the rest.  However, the Red Sox hurler also owns four more wins and four fewer losses than any of the other contenders.  I'm fully aware that win-loss record can be a terrible stat to measure by, but that is an enormous difference (and Porcello's other numbers are good too).

With just 4-5 starts remaining for each guy, the odds are very good that Porcello will be the league's only 20-game winner (J.A. Happ also has 17 victories, but is winless in his last three outings).


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