Toronto's Roy Halladay won the American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, easily beating Chicago's Esteban Loaiza.
Halladay, who won a major league-high 22 games, received 26 first-place votes and two seconds for 136 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Loaiza, who went to spring training with a minor league contract, got two firsts, 16 seconds and five thirds for 63 points.
Boston's Pedro Martinez was third with 20 points, followed by Oakland's Tim Hudson (15), Seattle's Jamie Moyer (12), the Yankees' Andy Pettitte (four) and Oakland's Keith Foulke and Minnesota's Johan Santana (one each).
Halladay, a 26-year-old right-hander, had never won more than eight games in a season before he went 19-7 last year. He finished 22-7 with a 3.25 ERA this year, winning 15 consecutive decisions from May 1 to July 27 and completing nine games.
"It was an unbelievable ride for me," Halladay said. "There were some games in there where I got a lot of help from my teammates."
Halladay's wins came in his last 30 starts.
His 1-0, 10-inning win over Detroit on Sept. 7 was the first extra-inning shutout in the major leagues since Jack Morris led Minnesota over Atlanta in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
Halladay gets a US$100,000 bonus for winning, Loaiza gets US$90,000 for finishing second and Martinez US$50,000 for finishing third.
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