Cy Young Award

He pitched for a second-division club rather than a World Series champion, but that probably helped rather than hurt Pat Hentgen's chances to win the American League Cy Young Award. Hentgen, of the Toronto Blue Jays, edged Andy Pettitte of the World Series champion New York Yankees on Tuesday to win the award in the closest voting since 1972. His durability was perhaps the deciding factor among members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, who voted on the award. Hentgen, 20-10 with a 3.

The Atlanta Braves retained the National League's Cy Young Award on Monday. Can they retain the pitcher who won it? If they don't, it will be a bigger surprise than if John Smoltz had not been the near-unanimous choice of a 28-member committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. Smoltz, 24-8 in his breakthrough season, received 26 first-place votes, two second-place votes and 136 points, based on five for first, three for second and one for third. Kevin Brown, 17-11 with a 1.

It began to seem almost routine. Greg Maddux would have a brilliant year, then go pick up another Cy Young Award. What Maddux accomplished over the past four years was one of the most remarkable feats in baseball history, right up there with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Hank Aaron's 755 homers and Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters. Four straight Cy Young awards. But the streak is over. "It's a nice award," Maddux said.

The post-strike baseball purges continued Thursday as the Montreal Expos sent outfielder Marquis Grissom to the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Royals traded Cy Young Award winner David Cone and his $5-million salary to the Toronto Blue Jays for three minor leaguers. In return for Grissom, Montreal got outfielders Roberto Kelly and Tony Tarasco and minor league pitcher Esteban Yan. Atlanta will pay much of Kelly's 1994 salary of $3.4 million.

In another measure of the extent to which he has harnessed his impressive and intimidating talent, Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners won the American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday. Close in each of the last two years, Johnson received 26 of 28 first-place votes from a committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. The 6-foot-10 left-hander, 18-2 with a league-leading 2.

Greg Maddux extended his unprecedented string of National League Cy Young awards Monday, winning his fourth. And for the second year in succession, Maddux was the unanimous choice of a 28-member committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. The only other pitcher to win unanimously in two consecutive years was Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers, in 1965 and '66. The only other four-time winner is Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies.

C.C. Sabathia beat Josh Beckett at last -- albeit a few weeks later than he hoped. Sabathia won the American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, topping Boston's ace and two other contenders by a comfortable margin to become the first Cleveland Indians pitcher in 35 years to earn the honor. Sabathia received 19 of 28 first-place votes and finished with 119 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America.

Jake Peavy was a unanimous winner of the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday after leading the league in wins, earned-run average and strikeouts -- pitching's version of a Triple Crown. The San Diego Padres ace received all 32 first-place votes and finished with 160 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America. Arizona sinkerballer Brandon Webb, last year's winner, was a distant runner-up with 94 points. He was listed second on 31 ballots and third on one.

Curt Schilling challenged Roger Clemens to come out from behind his prepared statement, calling on Clemens to surrender the final four Cy Young Awards he has won unless he obtains a retraction for his citation in the Mitchell Report as a user of steroids and human growth hormone.

Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks won a wide-open race for the National League Cy Young Award, beating out San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman. One of six pitchers who tied for the league lead with a pedestrian total of 16 wins, Webb received 15 of 32 first-place votes and 103 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America. Hoffman, who broke the career saves record this season, got 12 first-place votes and 77 points. St.