Rick Porcello Wins American League Cy Young Award
By Sam Gordon 11/18/2016
The Red Sox may have not made the World Series but some are still celebrating, as one of their aces Rick Porcello won the American League Cy Young Award this past week.
Porcello recorded 137 votes to Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander’s 132 to clinch the award. He also defeated Cleveland Indians World Series Pitcher Corey Kluber who had a total of 98 votes for the award.
Porcello joins a number of Red Sox pitching greats to win the award such as Pedro Martinez who won it back to back in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Roger Clemens who won the award three times in the 1986-1991 season span, and “Gentleman” Jim Lonborg who won it in 1967 and was the first Red Sox pitcher to ever win the coveted award.
While celebrating with his family, Porcello described how honored he was to be named along with those Red Sox legends.
“It’s pretty incredible to be mentioned with those three other Red Sox players, and then Pedro and Roger,” Porcello said on a conference call from his parents’ home in New Jersey, where he received the news. “It definitely doesn’t feel right, right now, just because I grew up watching those guys. They were my idols growing up, and I had the utmost admiration for what they’ve done in the game. To be in that category is — I can’t express my gratitude. It’s pretty humbling. I never thought I’d be in that position to mention my name with those guys.”
Porcello who went 22-4 as a starter this season, had the highest number of wins for a pitcher since 2011 and with a 5.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio that led the entire league this past season.
Even though Porcello won the award, he told usatoday.com that he didn’t downplay how difficult it was to play in Boston his first year with the team in 2015 which attributed to his early struggles.
“I don’t think I like to admit how difficult it was playing in Boston the first year,” Porcello said. “I take a lot of pride in what I do and I think the pressure I was putting on myself – and obviously there’s pressure playing in a city like that – it’s something that I almost couldn’t get out of my own way.
Porcello also talked about how this past offseason was very important in preparation for his Cy Young winning season.
“That offseason I was able to kind of regroup mentally, refocus and take things the way I wanted to, and take them slow,” Porcello said. “Started with my foundation, my delivery, getting back to doing the basics and doing simple better. It worked.’’