Jake Peavy led the league with 240 strikeouts.

Peavy went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 240 strikeouts, becoming just the fourth National League pitcher since Sandy Koufax to win the triple crown.

The 26-year-old pitcher, who received all 32 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, is the first unanimous selection for the award since Randy Johnson in 2002.

Peavy also led the league in ERA in 2004 and strikeouts in 2005. He pitched a career-high 223.1 innings in 2007.

His peripheral statistics were equally great: Peavy led the league in strikeout rate (9.67 every nine innings) and WHIP (1.06). His home run rate (0.52 every nine innings) was the best of his career, down from 1.02 every nine innings in 2006.

The more advanced pitching metrics confirmed Peavy’s dominance. He led the league in Expected Wins, Support Neutral Value Added (both adjusted and non-adjusted), Support Neutral Value Added above Replacement (again both adjusted and non-adjusted), Run Average, Fair Run Average and Value Over Replacement Player.

By any measure, Peavy was the clear choice for the award.

Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks finished second and Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers was third, and both had better seasons than Webb did last year, when he won the award. But they were soundly outperformed by Peavy.

Peavy is the fourth Padres pitcher to win the Cy Young Award, joining Randy Jones (1976), Gaylord Perry (1978) and Mark Davis (1989).
— Richard Brian Wade