This season, we watched Aaron Nola hold steady as his team rose to first place before collapsing around him. His 2.37 ERA, 3.86 SO/W, and 10.5 WAR in 33 starts got him national attention, allowing him to finish third in NL Cy Young voting and even get a few points on the NL MVP ballot.
Fifty-one years ago in 1967, Jim Bunning did the same thing, becoming the first Phillies pitcher ever to receive both Cy Young and MVP votes in the same season, the Cy Young Award having been instituted in 1956. Having thrown his first big league pitch in 1955, Bunning had been an all-star seven times and received MVP votes four times prior.