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Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara drew some late Cy Young buzz, but not enough to win the award.

(AP Photo)

Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara didn't stand much of a chance. Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer was the clear favorite and a closer hasn't won the AL award since 1992. Still, Uehara garnered some praise from the Baseball Writers Association of America, drawing three votes for the 2013 AL Cy Young award, good enough for a seventh-place finish.

The fact that Uehara didn't take on the closer's role until partway through the season definitely hurt the Cy Young campaign for the man who established himself as the most dominant closer in baseball by season's end. Uehara's late-season accomplishments, though, were enough to get him top-three finishes on three ballots.

Here are the three voters that chose to give a nod to the closer:

Gordon Edes, ESPNBoston - Third

Jim Ingraham, News Herald (Ohio) - Third

Dick Scanlon, Lakeland Ledger (Fla.) - Second

The voting, which has a 7-4-3-2-1 scoring system, gave Uehara 10 points overall, pushing him ahead of Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez (six points), but well shy of Oakland Atheltics starter Bartolo Colon (25 points)

The last reliver to win a Cy Young Award was Los Angeles Dodgers closer (and short-lived Red Sox disaster) Eric Gagne in his brilliant 55-save season in 2003. The last time and AL pitcher won the Cy Young award was over a decade before that, when Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley did it in 1992.

Cy Young ballots frequently feature closers as one of the top vote-getters. However, they are rarely seen as legitimate candidates for the award. With his seventh-place finish, Uehara was the top vote-getter among closers. That finish was the worst for the AL's top closer since Fernando Rodney came in eighth place back in 2010.