Padres ace Jake Peavy wins NL Cy Young

NEW YORK – Jake Peavy has been one of the best pitchers in the National League for years. This season, he pulled away from the pack.\nThe San Diego Padres ace was an unanimous winner of the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday after leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts – pitching’s version of a Triple Crown.\n“It was just one of those seasons where kind of everything came together,” he said on a conference call.\nPeavy received all 32 first-place votes and finished with 160 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association 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.\n“Obviously, I was elated. This is as big as it gets as far as individual awards,” Peavy said. “Truly amazing. A very humbling day when you think about all my peers that take the mound every fifth day.”\nPeavy went 19-6 while topping the majors in ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (240) for the Padres, who came within one win of their third consecutive playoff berth. He joined Roger Clemens as the only starting pitchers to win a Cy Young Award without tossing a complete game.\n“I can definitely get better. Our bullpen’s been so stinkin’ good around here it’s hard to get deep in these games,” Peavy said. “I’ve got a long way to go to be who I want to be.”\nIt was the 12th time an NL pitcher has been an unanimous choice for the honor, the first since Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2002. Peavy became the fourth San Diego pitcher to win the award, joining reliever Mark Davis (1989), Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry (1978) and lefty Randy Jones (1976).\nPeavy had a chance to put the Padres in the postseason – and earn his 20th win – when he started the wild-card tiebreaker against Colorado. But the 26-year-old right-hander was ineffective at Coors Field, giving up six runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings.\nThe Rockies rallied for three runs against career saves leader Trevor Hoffman in the 13th and won 9-8, then charged all the way to the World Series.\n“That was a tough way to go. We were so close and had grinded it out for so long,” Peavy said. “I really thought that this year’s team, if we got in the playoffs, could really make some noise.”\nBrad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers finished third in the voting. Cincinnati’s Aaron Harang was fourth and Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano came in fifth.\nPeavy, the National League’s starter in the All-Star game, was the front-runner nearly all season. He consistently stymied opponents, allowing only 13 home runs in 34 starts. He gave up 169 hits and 68 walks in 223 1/3 innings.