In part it is his story, and also his unique approach to getting batters out, but the New York Mets knuckleballer RA Dickey should win the <a href="gopher://topicL3RoZW5hdGlvbmFsL1N1YmplY3RzL01MQg==" inlink="topic::L3RoZW5hdGlvbmFsL1N1YmplY3RzL01MQg==">MLB's</a> National League Cy Young award. The 37-year-old right-hander, who reinvented himself with a pitch that nobody else is throwing at the moment, just became the first Met to win 20 games since Frank Viola in 1990. That was just the glamour number he needed to go along with his statistics. Dickey is second in the league in ERA (2.69), trailing Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers by one-100th of a point (2.68). Dickey leads in innings pitched (227.2 innings) and strikeouts (222). He is second in wins to Gio Gonzalez's 21, but Gonzalez might not have be the best pitcher on his own Washington staff this season. That was the young ace Stephen Strasburg. The Braves closer Craig Kimbrel is pitching with an invisi-ball, and the Reds closer Aroldis Chapman has a triple-digits fastball, but they have thrown a fraction of the innings and Dickey is pretty good at finishing games too. He has pitched five complete games this season, three by shutout. Kershaw has the better ERA but only 12 wins. Dickey has won 20, the first to do so for a losing team since Roger Clemens with Toronto in 1997. Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto has 19 wins and a 2.83 ERA pitching in a hitter-friendly ballpark. But Dickey has a 2.81 ERA on the road, too. And did we mention, he throws a knuckleball? Follow us
