NEW YORK (AP) — http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-carl-yastrzemski-jersey , Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola are going pitch for pitch in the NL Cy Young Award race.Problem is, that prize might not do the trio justice. Not according to baseball’s advanced analytics.With 2½ weeks left in the season, it’s time to ask: Should one of those three be MVP?“It’s the best player in the league,” deGrom said. “If that happens to be a pitcher and they can win it, then it’s well deserved.”There’s no debating deGrom’s dominance, even if it’s not translating into wins for the struggling New York Mets. Scherzer’s awards-season resume is more traditional, bolstered by league-leading totals in victories and strikeouts. And Nola is right there, too, in a breakout season with the Philadelphia Phillies.But an MVP? For three pitchers who are going to miss the postseason? Some don’t think pitchers should even be considered for the award, though they’ve won 25 times before.The stats devised by sabermetricians suggest it would be a swing and a miss not to consider a pitcher — certainly not in a year when the crop of NL hitters just doesn’t add up.The National League has produced at least one hitter worth 6.0 wins above replacement (WAR) each season since the Chicago Cubs‘ Hack Wilson topped 1926 at 5.7, according to Fangraphs.This year’s group is equally underwhelming, strictly by the numbers. Milwaukee teammates Lorenzo Cain (5.4) and Christian Yelich (5.3) top the circuit, followed by Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt (5.2), St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter (5.2), Chicago’s Javier Baez (4.9) and Colorado’s Nolan Arenado (4.8).For a catch-all stat like WAR — which measures contributions on offense, defense, baserunning and pitching — that 0.6 gap from Arenado on up is nearly negligible. Can’t go wrong choosing among them.But that group is far behind the league’s top pitchers by the same measure. DeGrom leads the NL with 8.1 WAR, and Scherzer, Nola and Diamondbacks ace Patrick Corbin are also ahead of the hitters. Over at Baseball-Reference, which has its own WAR formula, Scherzer (9.7) holds the top spot way ahead of Cain (6.3), with Nola Ted Williams Jersey , deGrom and Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland all beating the batters.It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for a pitcher to lead a league in WAR. By Baseball-Reference’s math, Clayton Kershaw did it when he won NL MVP in 2014, as did Justin Verlander for his AL MVP in 2011. Corey Kluber, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Zack Greinke each did it over the past decade, too. But in the age of ever-tighter pitch counts and innings limits, it’s not as common as it once was and figures to keep getting tougher.Of the 25 pitcher MVPs, 14 were awarded before the Cy Young Award was introduced in 1956. Prior to Kershaw and Verlander, the previous pitcher winner was reliever Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the prior starter to take MVP was Roger Clemens in 1986.Marlins manager and 1985 AL MVP Don Mattingly was the runner-up to Clemens that year — and wasn’t thrilled about it.“Hard for me as a player, to kind of know I play 160 games or whatever it is and then somebody has 30, 35 starts,” Mattingly said.He’s changed his mind since becoming a manager. Doesn’t hurt that he was leading the Dodgers when Kershaw won MVP.“If you’re talking about them as Cy Young and MVPs, they’re guys that are basically taking care of your bullpen that day, stopping any kind of streaks, adding to streaks — a guy you know you can count on,” Mattingly said.Mattingly has seen plenty of deGrom, Scherzer and Nola in the NL East.“I can see where you could look at them as being most valuable player,” he said.The cases for those pitchers are a little different from their predecessors — especially for deGrom.The Mets ace is just 8-9, putting him in the historic position of having more WAR than wins. According to Baseball-Reference’s records Jim Rice Jersey , deGrom would be just the second qualified pitcher ever to have more WAR than wins, following Eddie Smith (4-17 record, 4.1 WAR) with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937.At this point, deGrom’s underwhelming win total probably won’t hurt him much in Cy Young balloting. Voters set aside the stat when crowning Seattle’s Felix Hernandez in 2010 despite a 13-12 mark, and the electorate seems to agree that victories aren’t paramount to being the best pitcher.But to be the most valuable? Voters might still be stuck on wins there. Opinions are all over the board on how to quantify value — some voters insist MVPs have to come from winning teams, others see winning as something of a tiebreaker, and a growing number of progressive writers try to separate a player’s performance from that of his teammates entirely.That’s where deGrom’s candidacy could fall apart. Of the 21 starting pitchers to win MVP, all of them won at least 20 games. DeGrom is going to have a hard time winning 10.That’s not deGrom’s fault, of course. He has a 1.71 ERA this season, and yet New York is 12-17 behind him thanks to minimal run support.DeGrom has taken to helping himself, driving in four runs since Aug. 3, including New York’s only RBIs in 2-1 losses to the Braves and Cubs.Scherzer has been even better with the bat. He’s hitting .270 with six RBIs and a stolen base. Those contributions won’t help him stave off deGrom in his pursuit for a fourth Cy Young and third straight in the NL, but it could sway some MVP voters.Nola’s pitch seems to have lost a little steam as the Phillies have faded out of the playoff picture. Philadelphia dropped 6½ games behind Atlanta in the NL East after getting swept by the Nationals in a doubleheader Tuesday. Nola was 16-4 with a 2.29 ERA prior to a start Wednesday and wasn’t far behind Scherzer with 8.9 WAR, per Baseball-Reference.Unless a hitter separates from the pack over the final couple weeks, one of those three just might be an MVP.“It’s been done before,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “They should be considered.” BOSTON (AP) — An early stumble did little to slow down the Boston Red Sox.Boston scored seven straight runs after falling behind 3-0 in the first and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 on Friday night.“We had a good night. Guys put in quality at-bats from the first hitter on,” said Xander Bogaerts, who led the latest rally for the Red Sox with a two-run triple in the first.Bogaerts added a pair of doubles and the Red Sox improved to 51 games above .500 at 87-36.Jackie Bradley Jr. had two hits, including an RBI double in the sixth, and the Red Sox won for the sixth time in seven games.Brian Johnson recovered after getting roughed up in the first, when the Rays tagged him for three runs on four hits and a walk. Johnson cruised through the next three innings and didn’t allow another run.“Whenever you give up three and we come back and score two, you kind of feel that momentum come back to our dugout http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-nomar-garciaparra-jersey ,” Johnson said. “That’s when you know you’ve just got to go out there and pull them through any way you can.”Johnson (4-3) pitched 5 2/3 innings before leaving after Joey Wendle’s double in the sixth — Tampa Bay’s first hit since the first inning.Wendle drove in two runs with a double in the first and Carlos Gomez had an RBI single for the Rays.“We felt like it was a good start here,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “You’re not going to get much better starts, three in the first, but unfortunately we just gave it back a little too quick.”Yonny Chirinos (1-5) took over for Ryne Stanek in the second inning and allowed five runs on nine hits over six innings.Bogaerts pulled Boston within 3-2 on a two-out triple to center in the first, then led off the fourth with a double. Eduardo Nunez drove him in with a single to tie it at 3-all.Bogaerts, who fouled a ball hard off his left shin before doubling again in the seventh, has driven in nine runs in his last eight games.“He put some great at-bats today and that was good to see,” manager Alex Cora said.The Red Sox added another run after Mookie Betts’ leadoff double in the fifth and a one-out single by Mitch Moreland, who finished 2 for 4.OFF THE WALLMallex Smith had a pair of hits for the Rays and a made a great catch in the second on a sinking ball hit by Nunez, running it down in shallow right just before crashing hard into the wall with his left hip.Smith held on to the ball despite tumbling into the front row and remained in the game after a quick visit from the trainer.“Really impressive play,” Cash said.TOUCHEIn the third, Bradley made a catch for Boston that rivaled Smith’s play the previous inning. Tommy Pham hit a deep fly ball that was headed for the wall in left-center until Bradley ran it down just in front of the 379-foot mark for the second out of the inning.Bradley had to lunge to get the ball and crashed to the warning track and rolled, avoiding a full-speed collision with the wall.“That changes momentum,” Smith said. “A guy makes a catch like that after you hit the ball that hard, it’s deflating.”CURVE CONTROLJohnson walked Pham with two outs in the first before C.J. Cron and Wendle hit consecutive doubles and Gomez singled to drive in Wendle for a 3-0 lead.Johnson said his first-inning struggles had mostly to do with struggling to locate with his curveball.“I was burying it when I wouldn’t want to bury it,” Johnson said. “Giving up three in the first is never the way anyone wants to go about it.”TRAINER’S ROOMRays: LHP Vidal Nuno (strained right hamstring) was scheduled to pitch two innings for Class A Charlotte on Friday night. Nuno has been on the DL since July 4.Red Sox: Activated Ian Kinsler (strained left hamstring) from the 10-day DL and started him at second. Placed 3B Rafael Devers on the 10-day DL with a strained left hamstring, retroactive to Thursday.UP NEXTRays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (1-2, 3.97 ERA) gets his fourth start for the Rays since arriving from Pittsburgh in the Chris Archer trade July 31.Red Sox: LHP David Price (12-6, 3.75) has allowed a total three runs over his last four starts, going 2-0 with two no-decisions.