Phoenix, AZ

At first take, it appears the National League Cy Young Award is a battle between Philadelphia aces Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee and Los Angeles Dodgers upstart Clayton Kershaw.

Not many have noticed the soft-tossing right-hander in Arizona, Ian Kennedy, who has anchored the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks rotation all season and actually leads the National League with 19 wins and an .826 winning percentage -

The winning clip is the highest full-season winning percentage since Randy Johnson posted a 24-5 record for an .828 mark in 2002 for Arizona. He also ranks seventh in strikeouts (182) and innings (202) and 10th in ERA (2.99).

On Tuesday, Kennedy failed at his attempt for win No. 20 when he allowed four runs in the first inning against Los Angeles, but he kept the Dodgers off the board for the next five frames and Arizona rallied for a 5-4 triumph in 10 innings.

Chris Young drew a bases-loaded walk off Javy Guerra to provide the Diamondbacks their 18th win in 21 games.

"No," Kennedy told MLB.com when asked if he was disappointed in not picking up his 20th win. "All I care about is winning for our team. I'm glad we won. It kind of stinks that I didn't feel like I did my job.

"I wasn't commanding as well as usual. It just goes back to my command wasn't as sharp as it has been, especially with two strikes, and they put the ball in play. … They gave me a two-run lead right off the bat and just felt like I just needed to go out there and throw strikes."

Kennedy, acquired in a three-way trade involving Detroit in the winter of 2009, has certainly done what you look for in a Cy Young winner; dominating his division and finishing the season strong, helping Arizona overtake San Francisco.

The last Cy Young winner to go unbeaten in division was St. Louis RHP Chris Carpenter, 10-0 vs. NL Central foes in '05.

Kennedy is 11-1, 2.22 ERA in 13 starts since July 8. Over that span, Arizona went from two games behind San Francisco to 8 1/2 games ahead.

Furthermore, the 26-year-old was 7-0 against division foes during that stretch and also beat St. Louis and Milwaukee. Detroit's Justin Verlander is 11-1, 2.73 ERA during that span but no other pitcher has more than nine wins.

Additionally, the Arizona ace is 17-1 when getting three or more runs. And heading into Tuesday's game, cleanup hitters are batting .188 with a .584 OPS against Kennedy, whose fastball averages 90.2 miles per hour. Batters are hitting .133 with runners in scoring position, including 1-for-19 with the bases loaded and

Kennedy is attempting to become the league's youngest 20-game winner since Dontrelle Willis of Florida won 23 in 2005 at age 23, although the 23-year-old Kershaw is two victories away.

Kennedy is the first pitcher since Ewell Blackwell in 1947 to win 19 games in a season after entering the campaign with no more than 10 career triumphs in a previous campaign.

Obviously history is taking note of Kennedy's accomplishment. Will the voters?

Twitter: @ihavenet

Copyright © 2011 AHN - All Rights Reserved