Johnny Cueto threw seven shutout innings Saturday night as the Reds ended their losing streak, barely getting by the Nationals 1-0. Those innings moved Cueto past Adam Wainwright in NL Cy Young Tracker points, 68.5 to 63.2. Right now, Cueto has the advantage in innings and strikeouts, so Wainwright will need to keep his ERA lower to catch up. Clayton Kershaw‘s two-hit, seven strikeout, shutout of the Giants moves him up as well. He’s now at 60.3 points, and keeps gaining on the two leaders who traded spots all season.
Like Chris Sale last night, Clayton Kershaw now has enough innings to qualify for the NL ERA lead in ERA. Kershaw has a better chance of winning the Cy Young award in his league, however, as he’s converting more starts into wins, and he doesn’t need to chase Felix Hernandez.
Right now I am more impressed with Cueto. The Reds have scored almost no runs in his starts. Virtually all of his innings have been high stress. Yesterday he won 1-0 stopped a 7 game losing streak and had some physical issues dealing with high humidity. Because he’s low profile and plays out of the bright lights on a team no one cares about, he’ll be lucky to crack the top 10.