Tigers' Tarik Skubal unanimously wins AL Cy Young Award after dominant season

Chris Sale was one of the ace left-handers Tarik Skubal idolized as a teenager. Now the two will be linked forever after winning their first Cy Young Awards on Wednesday.

Skubal was a unanimous pick for the American League honour following a brilliant season with the Detroit Tigers. Sale's selection in the National League capped an incredible comeback with Atlanta after the 35-year-old had been derailed by injuries since helping Boston win the 2018 World Series.

Skubal and Sale shared the MLB lead with 18 wins this season and dominated their respective leagues.

Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, was 18-4 with a 2.39 earned-run average and a big league-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts. The left-hander got all 30 first-place votes in AL balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America that was completed before the playoffs.

Detroit now has six Cy Young Awards. Denny McLain won back-to-back in 1968 and 1969, and reliever Willie Hernandez was the 1984 winner. Justin Verlander's Cy Young Award with the Tigers came two years before Max Scherzer won in 2013.

Skubal had Tommy John surgery at Seattle University before the Tigers drafted him in the ninth round in 2018. His made his big-league debut in 2020, and this season went at least six innings in 25 of his 31 outings. He was 6-0 in his first nine starts and finished the season the same way -- 6-0 in his last nine starts while the Tigers made their surprising push to the playoffs.

He made his post-season debut with 17 consecutive scoreless innings before a five-run fifth that included a grand slam by Cleveland's Lane Thomas in the deciding Game 5 of their AL Division Series. That 7-3 loss ended the Tigers' season.

"I was able to kind of get over it relatively quickly