Will Blake Snell (31, San Diego Padres), who is striking out more than five batters per nine innings, become the seventh American League Cy Young Award winner in history?

Through Aug. 31, Snell has pitched 119 innings in 22 games this season, going 8-8 with a 2.50 ERA. He struck out 156 batters.

That’s the best ERA in all of baseball. The gap between him and Justin Steele, who is second in the National League, is 0.37. It’s looking increasingly likely that Snell will win the Cy Young Award.

Zack Greinke and Spencer Strider, the two traditional candidates, have season ERAs of 3.36 and 3.73. It may be difficult to close the gap on Snell for the rest of the season.

Snell has been very out of sorts this season. He’s maintaining a low ERA with a high strikeout rate while walking a ton of batters.안전놀이터

5.14 walks per nine innings and a ground ball rate of over 85%. Add to that the fact that his walks per nine innings are down to 6.4 from 7.2 last year, and he’s on pace for a Cy Young.

If Snell wins the National League Cy Young Award this season, he will become the seventh player in major league history to win both awards. He won the award for the second time in 2018.

Previous winners include Gaylord Perry, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roy Halladay, and Max Scherzer.

It will be interesting to see if Snell, who is having one of the worst offseasons of his career and has been blessed with the best of luck, can continue his path to the American League Cy Young Award.