Cy Young Award

So for, for him to be even at, you know, 14 wins kind of feels, I wouldn't say surprising, but maybe somewhat surprising with how things, uh, usually can go for him.

U- unfortunately, so he was of course my pick last year to, to win the, uh, the NL Cy Young Award.

Um, I...

That, that was before the season.

Uh, now, you know, he was somebody who was in the running here with our friends over at FanDuel, just looking at those odds for, for, uh, you know, winners of the 2026 NL Cy Young Award.

Um-

Um-Yeah, it's, it's gonna be Miz, obviously.

And then you saw him in 2025 take every single turn that he had up in that rotation, the only Dodgers pitcher to do so, and he's doing it again in 2026 in dominant fashion.

I mean, if it weren't for Jakub Mierzewski having that incredible season he's having over in Milwaukee, Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be a leading contender for the Cy Young Award.

He will be a finalist once again, but he won't win the award.

I, I wouldn't doubt it that in the next couple of years he will have another real shot at getting the award for the best pitcher in the National League.

And I get als- asked all the time, "Is he gonna win the Cy Young?" Sure.

But that's as far as I wanna talk about the Cy Young Award because we don't wanna talk about postseason awards.

We wanna talk about championships here.

So I think he's going to have at least two more outings.

Their, their pitching has been good, but I'm telling you, their pitching is better.

They have, uh, you know, the perennial Cy Young Award winner coming up here in the Miz leading the way, like he did today.

I think it's only fitting that they win this division title on a night that he is on the mound.

I think that speaks volumes for, you know, what it's like to be on the top of, of everybody else, you know, across baseball, and you got a guy leading the way.

Um, and, and that's gonna depend upon obviously a lot of exactly who they match up against.

Um, but the ...

I think the thing, Bob, that we can at least feel good about talking about is we have the Cy Young Award winner and, and then we have a potential, uh, Rookie of the Year-type guy in Logan Henderson, who's, uh, almost matched the Miz in the second half of the season, uh, pitch for pitch as far as the end result being positive, the end result being a win for the team.

And, and so that's great to have those guys do that.

You end up with eight right-handed bats in the lineup against Sanchez, against whom they've had some success this year, by the way.

That's now 13 runs, 25 hits for the Nationals in 21 and two-thirds innings against the guy who might win the NL Cy Young.

So they have experience against him, and they've seen how their right-handed hitters can have success against him, and it's absolutely worked out for them and, and never more so than in this game.

But what I loved about that all, you know, we tend to focus so much on who's in the starting lineup, and I think as we've learned this year, it's not just about who's in the lineup, but then who's available later on to pinch hit when certain matchups come up.

But, uh, Chaparro, Morales, House all getting to Christopher Sanchez.

Sanchez's wins above replacement for baseball reference is 7.6.

I mean, like you said, this guy may well win the National League Cy Young Award and, uh, the Nats very much got to him in this game.

Just so good to see what the Nats did here.

Later on, after the Giants came to San Francisco, he was traded over to Baltimore and then to Washington.

Spent four years there before coming back and won the Cy Young Award in the National League here in 1967 when he won 22 games.

McCormick pitches it on the ground to third.

Davenport takes it.

Their pitching has been good, but I'm telling you, their pitching is better.

They have the perennial Cy Young Award winner coming up here in the Miz leading the way, like he did today.

I think it's only fitting that they win this division title on a night that he is on the mound.

I think that speaks volumes for...

The question is, when they need that third starter, who is it going to be? Because there's a tremendous list of candidates to do that, and there's also – ways to fill that role if you do the combo pitchers.

And that's going to depend upon, obviously, a lot of exactly who they match up against.

But I think the thing, Bob, that we can at least feel good about talking about is we have the Cy Young Award winner, and then we have a potential rookie of the year type guy in Logan Henderson who's almost matched the Miz in the second half of the season pitch for pitch as far as the end result being positive, the end result being a win for the team.

And so that's great to have those guys do that.

I remember Patrick Peterson a few years ago talking about Julio Jones beating him on a deep pass.

And he said, hey, Cy Young Award winners give up home runs too.

That's akin to what you did.

You faced Aaron Judge.