Drabek Outpolls Martinez for NL Cy Young : Baseball: Pirate gets 23 of 24 first-place votes for leading team to East Division championship.

Doug Drabek of the Pittsburgh Pirates was named recipient of the National League’s Cy Young Award Wednesday, winning a statistical tossup from the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez in voting by a committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said he was disappointed.

“I’m not taking anything away from Drabek, but he had the luxury of pitching for a contender all year,” Lasorda said of the Pirates, who won the NL East Division title.

“Ramon was winning even when we were lousy, when we were 13 or 14 games behind. He kept us afloat, and he didn’t always get a lot of help.”

The Dodgers finished five games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the West, with Martinez, 20, going 13-0 against division opponents. He was 20-6 overall, with an earned-run average of 2.92.

Drabek, 28, was 22-6 with a 2.79 ERA but finished behind Martinez in complete games, 12-9; strikeouts, 234-131; innings pitched, 234-231 1/3; and opponents’ batting average, .221-.225.

But in voting by the committee of two writers in each league city, Drabek was nearly a unanimous choice. He received 23 of 24 first-place votes and 118 of a possible 120 points. Martinez drew one first-place vote and 70 points. Frank Viola, 20-12 with the New York Mets, was third.

“Because of the pennant race and the playoffs, I never allowed myself to even think about this,” Drabek, the first Pirate to win the Cy Young since Vernon Law in 1960, told the Associated Press.

“All of that individual stuff was pushed aside. I didn’t think about it, even after the season. I was just wishing we were in the World Series.”

Drabek had a 12-3 record in games after Pirate defeats and won 19 of his last 22 decisions.

“I’ve had two Cy Young Award winners and six or seven 20-game winners, but I’ve never had anyone pitch as consistently in big games as Drabek,” said Pittsburgh pitching coach Ray Miller, who was with the Baltimore Orioles during the glory years of Jim Palmer.

Drabek was 15-7 in 1988 and 14-12 with a 2.80 ERA in 1989 when he allowed three runs or fewer in 34 starts only to have the Pirates score two runs or fewer in 11 of his 12 losses. This year, the Pirates averaged more than five runs a game for him.

“I didn’t change anything from last year . . . and I don’t think I pitched that much differently from last year,” Drabek said. “I was just more consistent from start to finish and got a lot of run support.”

Martinez had been on a tour of Japan with a group of major league all-stars before returning after experiencing discomfort in his elbow.

He was examined by Dr. Frank Jobe, who recommended rest for Martinez, who will spend the winter in the Dominican Republic.