Shohei Ohtani is a superstar. He’s the face of baseball. He’s potentially the most talented baseball player we’ve ever seen. So it makes sense that his quest for the offensive triple crown (batting average, home runs, RBI) was a big story.
Ohtani missed the mark, but two MLB pitchers succeeded in winning the triple crown in the pitching category. In terms of victories, ERA, and strikeouts, Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and Chris Sale of the Braves led the AL and NL, respectively.
No player has done this in a full season since Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw both accomplished the feat in 2011. (Shane Bieber did in a 60-game 2020 season.)
The Tigers and Braves both sneaked into the postseason, so both players will be back next season. Skubal will start Game 1 of Detroit’s Wild Card series against Houston, but Sale—who will win the NL Cy Young but has struggled with injuries for years—will miss Atlanta’s Wild Card series against San Diego due to back spasms.
It will be a devastating loss for the Braves.
If you replaced these pitchers with each other, their respective teams would have had virtually the same seasons. Skubal ended the season 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA, 228 strikeouts, and 192.0 innings pitched. Sale posted an 18-3 record with a 2.38 ERA, 225 strikeouts and 177.2 innings pitched.
These two left-handers, who throw with great intensity, are at different stages of their careers. Skubal was presumably playing summer ball for his middle school when Sale joined the MLB in 2010.
Since Sale’s sophomore season with the Chicago White Sox, back when he was still coming out of the bullpen, more than ten years have passed, and neither pitcher has achieved what the other has.
Skubal’s Tigers grabbed the final AL Wild Card spot, finishing just one game above the Seattle Mariners. And Sale’s Braves made it even closer than that, tying with New York and Arizona for the last NL Wild Card spot, reaching the postseason thanks to a tiebreaker.
This isn’t the usual situation where the pitcher leading the Major League Baseball in wins is the finest pitcher on a dominant offensive squad. Sale and Skubal worked hard to earn these three titles; hopefully, we will see both of them throughout the postseason.
