(AP) - David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets are baseball's Cy Young Award winners.

Price barely beat out 2011 winner Justin Verlander for the American League award Wednesday in one of the closest votes ever. Dickey was an easy choice for the NL honor in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

The 38-year-old Dickey became the first pitcher who relied predominantly on a knuckleball to win the Cy Young Award, an achievement mentors such as Hall of Famer Phil Niekro are quite proud of.

Runner-up two years ago in the Cy Young race, Price was the pick this time for the AL's top pitching prize. He received 14 of 28 first-place votes to edge Verlander, chosen first on 13 ballots.