2012 Cy Young Winner Match-Up

Tonight's match up between R.A. Dickey and David Price is only the third time that prior-year Cy Young Winners meet. twitter.com/Alleycat17/sta…

— April Whitzman (@Alleycat17) May 9, 2013

With R.A. Dickey and David Price facing each other tonight in Tampa Bay, it marks only the third time in MLB history that two Cy Young Winners from the previous year meet up. The other two occasions were Pedro Martinez vs. Tom Glavine on July 4, 1999 and Frank Viola and Orel Hershiser on August 28, 1989.

The reasons there have been so few Cy Young matchups is for two reasons. For one, MLB only introduced a separate American League and National League Cy Young in 1967. More notably, Interleague Play only started in 1997. With the Astros moving to the American League, causing daily Interleague games, we may be fortunate to see this kind of match up more often in the future.

Until then, I hope for a great game tonight between Dickey and Price. Both pitchers haven’t been able to find their complete 2012 Cy Young form, but if anything was going to rejuvenate them, a pitching duel like this could do it.