Paul Sancya/Associated Press
Max Scherzer, the majors' only 20-game winner, was the recipient of good offensive support.
The Detroit Tigers' Max Scherzer did something on Wednesday that no starting pitcher had ever done before. He won a Cy Young Award before registering his first career complete game.
This is not to suggest that Scherzer was undeserving. He was the obvious choice, with 21 victories, a 2.90 earned run average and 240 strikeouts. Since 1975, only nine other pitchers have matched or bettered those figures in a single season, and each instance resulted in the Cy Young Award.
The names on that list are dazzling: Tom Seaver, Ron Guidry, Steve Carlton, Dwight Gooden, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson (twice), Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander. That is the kind of company Scherzer now keeps.
But while the basic numbers can be similar, pitching has evolved, and complete games are hardly a consideration for voters. Scherzer placed first on 28 of 30 writers' ballots to capture the American League honor. Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers' ace, took 29 of the 30 votes in National League balloting; he also won the award in 2011.
Scherzer is the third pitcher to win the Cy Young without a complete game in his victorious season. The others are Jake Peavy (2007) and Clemens (2001 and 2004). Both of those pitchers had worked complete games in prior seasons.
Scherzer, who has made 165 starts in his career, said he could have finished a game or two this season, but the Tigers had big leads and it was wiser to rest at the end. Still, he said he sometimes struggled after long half-innings, and wants to improve his efficiency.
"It's a lot of small things," Scherzer said, when asked how he could get even better. "Managing how my pitch count goes so I can pitch deeper into games."
Even so, Scherzer topped 200 innings for the first time in his career, with 2141/3 to rank fifth in the league. Even the A.L. leaders in complete games, David Price and Chris Sale, had only four; it was the lowest league-leading total in A.L. history.
Major league pitchers threw only 124 complete games this season — not the lowest ever, but part of a trend. In 2003, pitchers threw 209 complete games. In 1993 they threw 371, and in 1983 they threw 745.
Teams are increasingly careful with pitchers' workloads, and pitchers rarely exceed 125 pitches per outing. Twenty years ago, there were 304 instances of a pitcher throwing 125 pitches in a game. Last year, there were 14. Scherzer did not have one; his season high was 123.
Even so, and despite having to rely on the Tigers' shaky bullpen, Scherzer was the majors' only 20-game winner. He benefited from an average of 5.59 runs per game from his offense, a figure exceeded by only Ryan Dempster and Felix Doubront of Boston.
"So much credit goes to my teammates," Scherzer said. "I obviously had a great year, but so many of the wins attributed to me are because of my teammates. This is an award to celebrate them as well."
Scherzer worked on short rest in Game 4 of the division series against Oakland, earning a victory in relief with Detroit facing elimination. But even in the A.L. Championship Series against the Red Sox, Manager Jim Leyland would not extend his pitch count.
In Game 2, Scherzer left with a 5-1 lead after seven innings and 108 pitches. In Game 6, he left with a 2-1 lead after six and a third innings and 110 pitches. Both times, the bullpen allowed a grand slam soon after he departed. The Tigers lost both games and were beaten in the series, four games to two.
Scherzer, who can be a free agent after 2014 and is represented by Scott Boras, said he loved playing for the Tigers and was open to talks on a contract extension. But it did not sound like a priority.
"The business side will take care of itself," Scherzer said. "My job is to go out there and play baseball and pitch."
If a spiffy won-loss record helped Scherzer, who was 21-3, the lack of one did not hurt Kershaw, who was 16-9. Only two starters have ever had fewer victories in a nonstrike season and won the Cy Young Award. But Kershaw dominated the field, leading in strikeouts, WHIP and E.R.A. — 1.83, the best in the N.L. in a nonstrike season since Gooden in 1985.
St. Louis's Adam Wainwright took the other N.L. first-place vote and finished second. In the A.L., Sale and the Tigers' Anibal Sanchez each received a first-place vote. Yu Darvish of Texas finished second to Scherzer in the overall balloting, and Hisashi Iwakuma of Seattle finished third.
Neither Darvish nor Iwakuma has ever pitched a complete game in the major leagues, either.
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