Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout win MVP awards
NEW YORK – For once, Clayton Kershaw was glad to see a long shutout streak end.
Kershaw became the first pitcher to win the National League MVP award since Bob Gibson in 1968, coasting to an easy victory Thursday.
“A little bit of shock, honestly,” the Dodgers ace said on a conference call. “I guess I never really anticipated to win that.”
A day after unanimously taking the N.L. Cy Young Award, Kershaw completed a Los Angeles sweep. A little earlier, Angels outfielder Mike Trout was a unanimous pick for the A.L. MVP.
Trout had been blanked in his bid the past two years, finishing second both times to Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera. The 23-year-old Trout was the youngest unanimous MVP pick in major league history.
“Just anxious throughout the day,” Trout said of the waiting period. “I knew the experience I had the last two years. It helped me with it.”
Trout, the MVP of the All-Star game in July, and Kershaw both led their teams to West Division titles. In August, they finally faced each in a regular-season game – Trout singled, doubled and struck out looking at Dodger Stadium.
Someday, they hope to meet in October.
“I think in the future we’re going to contend for the World Series, year in and year out,” Kershaw said.
To do that, they want to improve in the playoffs. Kershaw went 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA against St. Louis in the Division Series, leaving him 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in the postseason.
The MVP and Cy Young prizes don’t “take the sting away of what happened in the playoffs,” Kershaw said.
Trout went 1 for 12 in a three-game sweep by Kansas City in his first playoff try.
“It’s tough to do. You have all these expectations, you want to do so good,” he said.
The awards voting was completed by the end of the regular season.
Kershaw breezed past Miami bopper Giancarlo Stanton and Pittsburgh outfielder Andrew McCutchen to become Most Valuable Player.
While Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander won the A.L. MVP in 2011, no one in the N.L. had done it for nearly a half-century.