Pitchers with the most walks and wild pitches look over the Cy Young Award. Kim’s San Diego Padres teammate, left-hander Blake Snell, 31, is taking on a rare challenge.

Snell started a road game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 29 and pitched seven innings of two-hit ball with five walks and nine strikeouts to lead San Diego to a 4-1 victory. He earned his 11th win of the season (9-0) and lowered his ERA from 2.73 to 2.60.

The outcome was good, but the process was unsettling. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases in the first inning, and a wild pitch put runners in scoring position in the third. In the fourth inning, a wild pitch and back-to-back walks loaded the bases with no outs. Snell pitched a scoreless inning with his crisis management skills, but his pitches were not clean with five walks and two wild pitches.

For the season, Snell is 11-9 with a 2.60 ERA and 193 strikeouts in 149 innings pitched in 27 games. He leads the National League (NL) in ERA and WHIP, is second in strikeouts, and is tied for seventh in wins, putting him in the mix for the Cy Young Award alongside Zack Greinke (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves). Snell leads Strider (56.3) and Gallon (54.9) in Tom Tango Cy Young Points, which predicts the Cy Young Award, with 61.8 points.

A left-handed fireballer who averages 95.4 mph (153.5 km/h) with a four-seam fastball and a sprinkling of power curveballs, Snell has an inherent pitching weakness. He has 85 walks and 12 wild pitches this year, the most in both leagues. His 5.1 walks per nine innings are the second-most in his eight-season career after 2016 (5.2).

While he continues to put runners on base with walks, he’s been able to limit the damage with his 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings. He also has a 1.167% walk rate with runners in scoring position. He also leads the league in stranding runners in scoring position (85.7%).

There have been two pitchers in the major leagues who have won the Cy Young Award for striking out the most batters. Bob Tully of the New York Yankees in 1958 and Earl Wynn of the Chicago White Sox in 1959 walked 4.7 and 4.2 batters per nine innings, respectively. This season, Snell has surpassed both with 5.1. No pitcher has ever won the Cy Young Award while leading the league in strikeouts and walks. Snell will attempt to become the first.온라인바카

According to MLB.com, “Snell leads the league in ERA and has the most walks allowed. At this rate, Snell could make history. No pitcher has ever led the league in both ERA and strikeouts in the same season,” and “Snell, who won the American League (AL) Cy Young Award in 2018, is in line to join the exclusive club of only Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer to win the award in both leagues.

Snell, who switched leagues to win his second Cy Young Award in 2018 after a stint with Tampa Bay, said: “The Cy Young Award only means something if the team wins. “I’m not going to think about the Cy Young until the end of the season. Right now, I’m just trying to pitch as well as I can and get the win and get the team to the postseason,” he said, emphasizing his hopes for fall baseball in San Diego.

Snell is also eligible for free agency after this season. The five-year, $50 million extension he signed with Tampa Bay in March 2019 is up. He was traded to San Diego in 2021 after becoming a mediocre pitcher since signing the deal, but he has resurfaced this year, increasing his free agent value. At 31 years old, he is still young enough to get a big contract.