Zimmermann finishes seventh in NL Cy Young voting

The Nationals had Gio Gonzalez finish third in the National League Cy Young voting last season. This year, Jordan Zimmermann was the top vote-getting Nats hurler, and he came in seventh. Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, to no one's surprise, took home his second Cy Young award in dominating fashion. Zimmermann received six third-place votes and three fifth-place votes. He finished the season with 19 wins, tied with Adam Wainwright (the Cy Young runner-up) for most in the National League. However, Zimmermann's ERA, which sat at 2.28 entering July, rose during the second half of the season. He posted a 4.38 ERA in his final 16 starts of the season and ended up finishing the year with a 3.25 ERA, 19th-best among qualifying NL pitchers. A lingering neck injury that Zimmermann battled during the middle part of the season could be to blame for some of his struggles. Zimmermann ranked sixth in the league with 213 1/3 innings pitched, and his 1.09 WHIP was eighth-best in the NL. He had 6.79 strikeouts per nine innings and a 4.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio, The 27-year-old right-hander also had four complete games (second-most in the league), two shutouts (tied for the most in the NL). Kershaw now has won his second Cy Young award in the last three years, and he finished second to R.A. Dickey in 2012. Yeah, the left-hander is pretty good. He got 29 of the 30 possible first-place votes. The other first-place vote was picked up by Wainwright. The Marlins' Jose Fernandez finished third, Atlanta's Craig Kimbrel finished fourth and Mets righty Matt Harvey finished fifth. Tigers righty Max Scherzer won the AL Cy Young. Click here for details on how the voting broke down for the NL Cy Young.