A late-season fade nearly cost Chris Carpenter the National League Cy Young Award in 2005, but he had such a head start on the competition that he held on just the same. In 2006, a much shorter slump, really a mini-slump, may have cost Carpenter the chance to repeat.
Arizona's Brandon Webb, who came on extremely strong in his final four starts, took the hardware, with Carpenter finishing third in the balloting behind San Diego's Trevor Hoffman. Carpenter received two first-place votes, 16 second-place votes and five thirds for 63 points. Webb was first on 15 ballots and had 103 points; Hoffman had 12 firsts and 77 points.
Webb led the league in victories, one of six pitchers tied at 16 -- Carpenter finished with 15. The two groundballers ended the year nearly tied in a large number of categories, but Webb had one more start, more innings and pitched in a tougher ballpark.
"It's not a surprise," Carpenter said of the result. "I think that there was a group of guys [where] everybody had a shot. I said all year long that you do the best you can during the season, and when it's all said and done, it's up to the voters. ... There's no question that there were five or six guys that all could have had the opportunity to win it, and Brandon Webb deserves it, no question about it."
Carpenter nonetheless put up a season fully worthy of the game's top pitching honor. His 3.09 ERA ranked second in the NL. He led the league with three shutouts and a 1.07 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched), and ranked among the league leaders in strikeouts (184, sixth), innings (221 2/3, sixth), complete games (five, second) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.28, third).
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Carpenter third in Cy Young voting
Carpenter third in Cy Young voting
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