Cueto notches 20th win

Vancouver's Johnny Cueto became the DMBL's first 20-game winner this season, solidifying his candidacy for the Ben McDonald Award. Coincidentally, the win also was the 100th of his career.

Cueto (20-5, 2.89 ERA) struck out 9 and yielded just two hits before the bullpen took over in Sunday's 5-0 victory at Sardine City. Jake Lamb hit his 20th homer and Anthony Rendon drove in 3 runs to power the Iron Fist offense. Josh Reddick also went 4-for-4 out of the leadoff spot to expand his lead in the batting race.

The Dominican right-hander might be the lone 20-game winner this season. Hoboken's Rick Porcello (18-8) must win two of his final three starts while Chris Sale (17-7) has even less room for error, needing to win his final three starts for San Francisco. It's the second year in a row that a pitcher has earned 20 victories (last season it was Dallas Keuchel of Arkansas, Allentown's David Price and Adam Warren of San Francisco) and before that, Hoboken's Clayton Kershaw and Anibal Sanchez of San Francisco both went 20-7 in 2014. (Henderson Alvarez just missed winning 20 for San Francisco in 2015).

With at least two scheduled starts remaining, Cueto has a shot to be the first pitcher to win 20+ games since probably 2013 when Trevor Cahill went 24-4 for Philly -- which boasted two 20-game winners that year (Zack Greinke, 20-6), or Sonny Gray's 23-6 mark for Durham in 2014. He also needs 28 strikeouts to reach 200 for the third straight season.

The Micro Conference's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game, Cueto has enjoyed the league lead in wins for much of the season, being the first to 10 and 15 wins as well. He now ranks 4th in ERA and tied for 4th in WHIP (1.06). The win was his 20th quality start, tied for 5th in the DMBL, and tied for 6th in QS percentage (.667).

Originally a 7th-round pick in 2009 by Philly, Cueto was dealt to Carolina before the 2010 season in a deal that included reigning McDonald Award winner Roy Halladay and a young Stephen Strasburg, but enjoyed middling success at best. It wasn't until after he came to Vancouver as a 3rd-round selection in the 2011 draft that he really started to put things together.

After some early struggles in Vancouver, the 31-year-old has been a rock in the Iron Fist rotation for more than a half-decade. Since the beginning of 2012, Cueto hasn't missed a start  -- that's 33 per year -- 34 in 2016. He's hit 220 innings in four of the last five seasons heading into 2017, including a career-high 253 innings last year. Not only has Cueto enjoyed a winning record every year since 2012, he's into double-digit victories for the 6th straight season. The 20 wins are a new career high, eclipsing his previous best of 18 wins, accomplished in 2015.