The question really wasn't whether Paul Skenes would win the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night. It was a matter of whether he would be a unanimous choice.

Skenes indeed received all 30 first-place votes from a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He became the first Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher to win the award since Doug Drabek in 1990. Skenes won in his first full major-league season and a year after winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

"Winning it is one thing; it being a unanimous decision is another," Skenes said. "It's pretty special. The Cy Young Award is the Cy Young Award. Every baseball fan knows it. I've had a month to think about it now, after the season ended, and what it would mean. That's the answer I've come to, which is that it doesn't change anything about the season I had, whether I win it or not.

"Same way I thought about the Rookie of the Year award last year. It's a tremendous honor, but we play this game because we love the game. We love to pitch and to win. To just be in baseball, we are stewards of the game. Cy Young Award or not, that doesn't change that. I'm obviously grateful to win the award, but just to be able to play the game - 162 games, my first full big-league season. I was healthy the whole time. Those are the sweetest parts about it."

Skenes became the first starting pitcher without a winning record to capture a Cy Young as he went 10-10 in 32 starts. However, he had an NL-leading 1.97 ERA, 216 strikeouts, a .199 batting average against, and a 0.95 WHIP while pitching 187 2/3 innings.

Since ERA became an official statistic in 1913, Skenes is just the third Pirates pitcher to have an ERA under 2.00. The others were Wilbur Cooper (.187) in 1916 and Babe Adams (1.98) in 2019. Skenes was also the first Pirate to lead the NL in that category since John Candelaria had a 2.34 mark in 1977.

Skenes became just the second player to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young in consecutive years. Dwight Gooden pulled off the feat in 1984 and 1985 with the New York Mets.

Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez received each of the 30 second-place votes, and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto finished third in the balloting. Skenes will receive his award on Jan. 24 during the New York chapter of the BBWAA's annual dinner.

The other thing missing from Skenes' season was team success. The Pirates went 71-91 and finished last in the NL Central. Pittsburgh hasn't been to the postseason since 2015 or to the World Series since 1979, when they defeated the Baltimore Orioles in seven games.

"That's what we need to do," Skenes said of the Pirates winning. "That needs to be the focus every day in the locker room. I think over the past two years, it's funny because you show up to spring training and everybody's motivated and happy and hopeful. That's the feeling that I've had over the last couple of years and then as the season goes on the newness wears off and you get into the grind of June, July, August.

"The reason that you show up to the ballpark changes. What you're trying to accomplish every day changes. The focus needs to be on winning a World Series in Pittsburgh. We haven't done it since 1979. That's 46 years."