The 5 best seasons by Reds pitchers

CINCINNATI -- Until Trevor Bauer achieved the feat during the truncated 2020 season, no Reds pitcher had ever been voted the winner of the National League Cy Young Award.

That seems baffling when you consider the franchise’s longevity and how many pitchers enjoyed great seasons for Cincinnati. Of course, some of those performances happened before the Cy Young Award was created in 1956.

Here are five of the best single-season performances by a Reds pitcher:

1) Bucky Walters, 1939

Walters arrived midseason in a 1938 trade from the second-division Phillies, and he really made his mark for Cincinnati the following season. In ‘39, Walters was voted the National League Most Valuable Player Award winner as he posted MLB bests with a 2.29 ERA and 27 wins in 319 innings. His 137 strikeouts were the most in the NL, too. Walters is one of only 16 pitchers to achieve the NL pitching triple crown in the 145-year history of the league.

Of the 36 starts Walters made that season, 31 were complete games, which led the Majors. He recorded 8.2 bWAR as the Reds went on to win the NL pennant. In 1940, as Cincinnati won the World Series, Walters just missed another triple crown while going 22-10 with a 2.48 ERA with 29 complete games and 115 strikeouts over 305 innings.

2) Jose Rijo, 1993

Rijo, who was the 1990 World Series MVP, led the NL in ’93 with 9.2 bWAR while going 14-9 with a 2.48 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP over 257 1/3 innings. He led MLB with 36 starts and topped the NL with 227 strikeouts while finishing second in MLB in ERA and fourth in WHIP.

Alas, Rijo would finish a distant fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting as Greg Maddux of the Braves won his second in a row. Wins were a big commodity for voters, and Maddux had 20 victories for a division-winning club; Rijo was six wins short of 20 as Cincinnati finished 73-89.

According to SABR, Rijo had five potential wins blown by the bullpen in the ninth inning and three in the eighth inning. In eight of his losses, the Reds scored a total of seven runs.

“Given the lineup [Atlanta] had last year, and I probably would have won 25. It definitely would have been at least 20,” Rijo was quoted as saying.

3) Dolf Luque, 1923

As Babe Ruth was tearing up the American League for the Yankees in a new ballpark, he never had to face Luque during the 1923 season. One of the early 20th century Cuban players in Major League Baseball -- long before Jackie Robinson and the 1947 integration of the game -- Luque’s 27 wins, 1.93 ERA and six shutouts led the Major Leagues. He was worth 10.7 bWAR, but the Reds won 91 games and finished in second place and 4 1/2 games behind the New York Giants for the NL pennant.

Luque’s 2,668 2/3 innings pitched for Cincinnati is the second-most in franchise history. But he never had a dominant season like the one he enjoyed in 1923.

4) Ewell Blackwell, 1947

In only his third big league season and second back from serving in the military during World War II, Blackwell was known as “The Whip” because of a long-limbed 6-foot-6, 195-pound frame that could hurl a devastating sidearm sinking fastball. Blackwell led MLB in wins and led the NL in strikeouts, going 22-8 with a 2.47 ERA and 193 Ks in 33 starts. He also had an NL-best 23 complete games and led the club with 9.4 WAR.

The 1947 season started poorly, as Blackwell was 2-2 with a 5.09 ERA on May 4. From there, he established a modern NL record for a righty with 16 consecutive winning decisions; in that stretch of 17 games, he recorded 16 complete games and one no-decision. On two occasions in back-to-back games, according to SABR, Blackwell took no-hitters into the ninth inning. Unfortunately for him, the Reds were a second-division club with 73 wins and a fifth-place finish in the NL. Blackwell made his second of six All-Star Games, but he would later see his promising career marred by injuries that included the removal of a kidney.

5) Jim Maloney, 1965

An often-overlooked pitcher in a decade renowned for spectacular pitching, Maloney made only one NL All-Star team in 1965. The right-hander was 20-9 with a 2.54 ERA in 33 starts with 14 complete games and five shutouts. Over 255 1/3 innings, he walked 110 batters and struck out 244.

On June 14, 1965, vs. the Dodgers at Crosley Field, Maloney struck out 18 batters and took a no-hitter into the 11th inning. But without any run support, he allowed a home run and a single in a 1-0 loss. Two months later, on Aug. 19 at Wrigley Field, Maloney notched his no-hitter vs. the Cubs for a 1-0 victory -- in 10 innings -- but it was one of the oddest in history. In the game, Maloney walked 10 batters and struck out 12 while throwing 187 pitches.