Rays’ Snell wins AL Cy Young

NEW YORK — Rays lefty Blake Snell won his first AL Cy Young award in a tight race over past winners Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber.

Snell got 17 first-place votes and 169 points to 13 first-place votes and 154 points for Verlander. Kluber had 71 points, followed by Boston’s Chris Sale and Houston’s Gerrit Cole.

Snell, the second Rays pitcher to win the award (David Price in 2012), led the AL with a 1.89 ERA.

The 25-year-old pitched just 180 2/3 innings, 33 ¹/3 fewer than Verlander, but his dominance was enough to sway the electorate.

The lefty nicknamed Snellzilla wreaked havoc against the AL’s top lineups. He was 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in four starts against the World Series champion Red Sox, and 2-0 in two starts each against the Astros and Indians. The Yankees roughed Snell up twice, but he got threw five scoreless innings in a victory Aug. 16. That came during a late-sea- son run of nine consecutive wins for Snell, including a victory against every team in the AL East.

Snell is the first player 25or-younger to win 21 games since Barry Zito in 2002.

Snell was a stalwart for a most unusual pitching staff, taking the ball every fifth day while manager Kevin Cash successfully experimented with reliever “openers” to start games in between.

“I felt with the opener, I had a bigger role on the team,” Snell said.