All Brandon Webb had to do was go out and pitch well one last time and the Cy Young was probably his. Instead, he got bombed by the Padres and gave up 7 earned runs in just 4 innings, and saw his ERA go from 2.89 to 3.10. His record took a hit as well, ending up at 16-8. The other candidates: Roy Oswalt 15-8 2.98 Chris Carpenter 15-8 3.09 Zambrano 16-7 3.41 Smoltz 16-9 3.49 Lowe 16-8 3.63 Zambrano actually had an excellent opportunity to steal it away had he won his last start to go 17-6, especially with his 210 strikeouts. But the Cubs couldn't solve Josh Fogg and played shaky defense behind Zambrano. Roy Oswalt had a victory seemingly in hand against St. Louis a week ago before surrendering a cheapy 2 run homer to Chris Duncan in the 7th inning to tie the game at 3. Another win and an ERA lowered to about 2.90 could have won Roy-O the award as well. Carpenter's last 2 outings were horrible, when the Cardinals needed him most, and ultimately lost any chance at the Cy. But ultimately I think Trevor Hoffman will get it. Afterall he broke the all time saves record that Lee Smith held for many years just a couple of weeks ago. He was snubbed back in 98 when he had 53 saves and a 1.48 ERA. This season he has 46 saves and a 2.14 ERA. I think he will win in an extremely close vote.
