New York ? Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win a Cy Young Award, easily beating San Francisco’s Jason Schmidt for the National League honor.

Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities, received 28 of 32 first-place votes and 146 points in balloting released Thursday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

It was just the ninth time a reliever won a Cy Young, the first in the NL since San Diego’s Mark Davis in 1989.

“We haven’t seen a lot of relievers win that award, so I was a little worried,” Gagne said during a conference call.

Schmidt was second with two first-place votes and 73 points. Chicago’s Mark Prior received the other first-place votes and was third with 60 points.

Gagne, a 27-year-old right-hander, was 2-3 with a 1.20 ERA and had 137 strikeouts and 20 walks in 821/3 innings.

Gagne is the first reliever to win a Cy Young since Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley won the AL award in 1992.