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It's been a few starts since we checked in on R.A. Dickey's incredible season and put it in context in Mets history, but what better time to revisit the series than after his brilliant outing this afternoon?
As Eno Sarris pointed out in the recap, Dickey's gone on another great stretch and put himself right atop the National League's short list of Cy Young Award contenders. Let's have a look at how his numbers compare to two of the Mets' past Cy Young season: Dwight Gooden's 1985 and Tom Seaver's 1973.
| IP | ERA | K | BB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seaver '73 | 187.2 | 1.87 | 166 | 40 |
| Gooden '85 | 179.2 | 1.65 | 173 | 43 |
| Dickey '12 | 162.1 | 2.72 | 166 | 36 |
As has been the case for most of the season, Dickey's odds of catching up to either Gooden or Seaver in ERA are pretty slim. Dickey's 4.61 strikeouts-per-walk is still the best of the bunch through twenty-three starts, though, and he's got a great shot to be the first Mets pitcher since Gooden in '85 to win the Cy Young.
Mark Simon of ESPN provides a couple of facts about just how good Dickey's been this year in his synopsis of the Mets' series against the Marlins:
[Dickey] has three starts this season with 10 strikeouts or more and no walks. That matches the single-season franchise mark shared by Tom Seaver and Jon Matlack.
Dickey had his sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season, the most by a Mets pitcher since David Cone had eight in 1992.
Lest anyone forget how great Dickey has been since he joined the Mets early in the 2010 season, he now has a 2.94 ERA in 698.2 innings of work with the team. If he continues to pitch like he has all year, Dickey could take home the Cy Young at the end of the same season in which Johan Santana threw the Mets' first no-hitter. The Mets may have fallen out of the wild card race, but that combination would make 2012 a memorable season regardless of the team's place in the standings.