Zack Greinke finishes second in 2015 NL Cy Young Award voting

LOS ANGELES -- Zack Greinke had one of the greatest pitching seasons in Dodgers franchise history but it wasn't quite good enough to capture the 2015 National League Cy Young Award, finishing second to Cubs ace Jake Arrieta in Baseball Writers Association of America voting announced on Wednesday.

Arrieta received 17 of 30 first-place votes, with Greinke getting 10 first-place tallies. Clayton Kershaw finished third in the balloting, getting the other three first-place votes.

Greinke was 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA in 32 starts, with 200 strikeouts and 40 walks in 222⅔ innings. He led the majors in ERA (the lowest mark since Greg Maddux in 1995), ERA+ (225), WHIP (0.844, the lowest since Pedro Martinez in 2000) and quality starts (30, the most since Felix Hernandez in 2011.

Consistency was the name of the game for Greinke, who lasted at least six innings in all 32 of his regular season starts and both playoff starts. His highest ERA in any month was his 2.45 mark in August, his only month in 2015 above 1.93, and that came in a month with 36 strikeouts and only six walks.

From June 18 to July 26, Greinke had a streak of 45⅔ consecutive scoreless innings, the longest scoreless streak since Orel Hershiser's record-setting 59-innin mark in 1988. Greinke's streak of six consecutive scoreless starts tied a major league record also set by Hershiser and Don Drysdale, the latter in 1968.

Greinke's 11 scoreless starts were the most by a Dodgers pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1963, and tied for the most in baseball, with Arrieta, who finished his season with a bang.

Arrieta was 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA in 33 starts fo the Cubs, with 236 strikeouts and 48 walks in 229 innings. He set a major league record with a 0.75 ERA after the All-Star break, and pitched a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 30.

It is a testament to Kershaw's greatness that finishing in third place is his lowest finish in Cy Young voting in the last five years, and it came in a season in which he put up a 2.13 ERA, led the world in FIP (1.99) and struck out a career-best 301 batters, the first major league pitcher with 300 strikeouts in 13 seasons.