The face of a man who knows he’s great, regardless of the votes. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

By Jon Weisman

Despite his glowing stats, we knew Clayton Kershaw wouldn’t win, place or show in the 2016 National League Cy Young Award balloting, so the only remaining question was whether he got any first-place votes at all from the Baseball Writers Association of America.

The answer: Yes.

Kershaw, who won the Cy Young in 2011, 2013 and 2014 while finishing second in 2012 and third last year, ended up in the top five for the sixth consecutive season, picking up two first-place votes along the way. He was mentioned on 11 of 30 ballots in either first, second or third place.

In the past six seasons, the 28-year-old has a 2.06 ERA in 1,277 innings with 10.0 strikeouts per nine innings and a 0.91 WHIP. (Oh, and if you like round numbers: exactly 100 wins.)

Max Scherzer won the award, with Jon Lester finishing second and Kyle Hendricks third. Madison Bumgarner was in fourth place, though with no first-place votes. Only Scherzer had more first-place votes than Kershaw.