NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole was a unanimous winner of his first American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, and Blake Snell took the National League honor in becoming the seventh pitcher to earn baseball’s top pitching prize in both leagues.

After coming close several times before, Cole finally finished on top following an outstanding season for the New York Yankees. The ace right-hander received all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Minnesota Twins right-hander Sonny Gray was the runner-up with 20 second-place votes, and Kevin Gausman of the Toronto Blue Jays finished third. Red Sox reliever Chris Martin received one fifth-place vote.

Cole went 15-4 with an AL-low 2.63 ERA and 222 strikeouts in 209 innings, leading the league in innings, as well. He became the sixth Yankees pitcher to win a Cy Young and first since Roger Clemens in 2001.

The six-time All-Star twice came in second in Cy Young voting and finished in the top five three other times.

Snell was the NL winner after leading the majors in ERA for the San Diego Padres.

The free-agent lefty was picked first on 28 of 30 ballots. San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb finished second and Zac Gallen of the NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks was third.

Snell, the AL Cy Young Award recipient in 2018 with Tampa Bay, joined Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer as pitchers to win in both leagues.

Shaking off a dreadful start to the season, Snell went 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 180 innings over 32 outings for a disappointing Padres team that finished 82-80 despite baseball’s third-highest payroll.

He was 1-6 with a 5.40 ERA after losing to Boston on May 19, then dominated the rest of the way despite topping the majors with 99 walks this year. Harnessing his 95-96 mph heater and overpowering curve, Snell won eight of his last nine decisions and did not allow a run in five of his final six starts — including the last three.

Snell gave up only 5.75 hits per nine innings, by far the best mark in the majors. All those stingy numbers while he was on the mound were more than enough to beat out Webb (11-13, 3.25 ERA) and Gallen (17-9, 3.47), who each logged at least 210 innings. Both got one first-place vote.

Snell, who turns 31 next month, became a free agent after the World Series and rejected a $20,325,000 qualifying offer from the Padres on Tuesday to pursue a more lucrative contract.

The four previous San Diego pitchers to win the Cy Young Award were Randy Jones (1976), Perry (1978), reliever Mark Davis (1989) and Jake Peavy (2007).

ATHLETICS: Major League Baseball team owners are set to vote Thursday on the proposed relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas at the end of their league-wide meeting.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was presenting his recommendation to the 30 owners during the three-day meeting, which came about six months after the A’s reached a tentative agreement for a new stadium in Las Vegas after being unable to reach a deal for one in Oakland.

Any recommendation for a move would require at least a three-quarters vote — at least 23 owners — for approval. The last team to relocate was the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals in 2005.

If a move is approved, a new Las Vegas ballpark appears unlikely to open any earlier than 2027. It is uncertain where the A’s would play after 2024 during construction of a new stadium.

BREWERS: After spending the last eight seasons as Craig Counsell’s bench coach, Pat Murphy is taking over for his former boss as the Milwaukee manager.

The Brewers announced they were promoting Murphy a little over a week after the Chicago Cubs announced they had hired Counsell away from Milwaukee. Counsell’s introductory news conference with the Cubs was Monday.

“Pat Murphy brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and passion for the game of baseball as well as a familiarity with the Brewers organization, players, staff and culture,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said in a statement. “Pat has been a significant contributor in the run of recent seasons of unprecedented success in franchise history. We are pleased to have Pat remain in the Brewers family and excited to name him manager today.”

The Brewers will hold an introductory news conference on Thursday for Murphy, who received a three-year contract.

PITCH CLOCK: Major League Baseball has proposed cutting the pitch clock from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base, according to a person with direct knowledge of the proposal.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

MLB’s proposal goes before an 11-member competition committee that includes four players, an umpire and six team representatives. The committee has to wait at least 45 days after a proposal to approve it.

The pitch clock would remain at 15 seconds with no runners on base.

With the pitch clock, the average time of nine-inning games dropped to 2 hours, 40 minutes during the regular season, the lowest since 1985. That speed-up carried over to the postseason, where nine-inning World Series games averaged 3:01, the fastest since 1996.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last month he didn’t anticipate any major rules changes for next season.