Max Scherzer

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Does he go 14-0 today?

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Is he the favorite for the Cy Young?

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ports Illustrated's Cliff Corcoran, who examines the awards races in baseball, took a whack at the Cy Young race. He wrote: "Scherzer is enjoying an excellent season, but at the moment, he doesn't even top the ... rankings of contenders for the honor of being the AL's best pitcher." Corcoran said that the way Clay Buchholz was pitching, he was the leader but has been out for a month now with a bad shoulder. The writer's No. 1 right now is Seattle's Hisashi Iwakuma (7-3, 2.42 ERA, 0.88 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) and a 5.94 strikeout-to-walk ratio). However, in his last four starts, he's 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA. So Scherzer's No. 2, right? Wrong. Corcoran has the Rangers' Yu Darvish in that spot. He's 8-3 with a 2.78 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and a 12.0 strikeout-per-nine innings rate. But, in his last four weeks, the Texas ace is 1-4 with a 2.81 ERA. Then comes Scherzer, whose numbers (13-0, 3.09 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 10.7 strikeout-per-nine and 5.35 strikeout-to-walk) have been elevated by his last four weeks. The AL player of the month for June is 6-0 in the last four weeks. Corcoran: "Scherzer isn't on this list because he's 13-0. He's here because of the way he's pitched en route to that perfect mark. He has pounded the strike zone, kept runners off base and runs off the board while going deep in to games (11 of his 17 starts have lasted seven or more innings). He's also been remarkably consistent. Scherzer's last nine starts have all been quality. He earned the win in eight of them and deserved the win in the ninth as well. He didn't, however, deserve a win when he allowed five runs in five innings on April 24, but he got one anyway."

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