Clayton Kershaw Near Lock to Win NL Pitching Triple Crown

Clayton Kershaw has all but locked up the pitching equivalent to the National League Triple Crown.  With two games remaining, Kershaw leads the NL in all three Triple Crown categories; strikeouts, ERA and wins.

Entering last night’s slate of games, the only person standing within range of Kershaw in any of these categories was Cliff Lee.  Before Lee’s start, it was determined that he would have to K 16 batters to move ahead of Kershaw in strikeouts.  Lee would have also had to throw an extra-inning shutout to move his ERA below Kershaw’s.

Neither of these things happened, as Lee allowed two runs over his six innings of work while striking out six batters.

Now, as long as Ian Kennedy doesn’t somehow pick up win number 22, Kershaw appears to be a lock for the Triple Crown.

Kershaw will end the season with an ERA of 2.28 to go with his record of 21-5 and 248 strikeouts.

As the likely winner of the NL Triple Crown, I don’t see how Kershaw doesn’t also take home the NL Cy Young award.

But, while he does lead the NL in those three categories, Kershaw also trails Roy Halladay in several of the games more in depth statistics.  The gap in WAR isn’t close according to FanGraphs, and Halladay’s lower walk and home run rates help his fielding independent pitching stats.

While they may make for interesting debate, I don’t know that these advanced statistics will play a large role in the voter’s minds.  At this point, if you have a pitcher like Kershaw taking home the NL Triple Crown he is also likely to receive a Cy.

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