Shane McClanahan Sandy Alcantara Cy Young favorites

The second half of the MLB season gets underway Thursday, and the top arms in the sport are gearing up for the stretch run.

Postseason berths are at stake, and so are the AL and NL Cy Young Awards. As things stand coming out of the All-Star break, there is a clear favorite in each league, per the results of the latest MLB.com poll. But that hardly means the competition is over, with a number of strong candidates waiting in the wings to stake their claims over the final two months.

Once again, voters were asked to rank their top five Cy Young candidates in each league based on what has happened so far and what they expect will happen in the months to come. Pitchers received vote points on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale — five points for a first-place vote, four points for a second-place vote and so on, with 39 voters participating. Here are the results.

1) Shane McClanahan, Rays (34 first-place votes)
DraftKings Cy Young odds: 2-to-1

No, McClanahan didn’t have his best stuff in his All-Star Game start on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, allowing two first-inning runs on four hits. But that has no bearing on his Cy Young Award prospects, which look just as strong as the last time we conducted this poll, three weeks ago. After all, the 25-year-old entered the break leading the Majors in ERA (1.71) and WHIP (0.795). McClanahan posted a 1.15 ERA over his final 12 starts of the first half, with 100 strikeouts and only 10 walks.

2) Justin Verlander, Astros (3 first-place votes)
DraftKings Cy Young odds: 2.6-to-1

Can JV put together a big second half and claim Cy Young No. 3? It would be an incredible accomplishment for a pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgery and one that would vault him into elite company. Only 10 pitchers have ever won it at least three times, including two active pitchers (Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer). Verlander leads the Majors with 12 wins and has held the opposition to no more than one earned run in 12 of 17 starts.

3) Dylan Cease, White Sox
DraftKings Cy Young odds: 9-to-1

If Cease wins the award, he will have done so despite being left off the AL All-Star roster. One could forgive the right-hander for any hard feelings about that, given that he leads the Majors with 150 strikeouts and ended the first half on a tear. The White Sox won six of Cease’s final seven starts entering the break, in which he produced a 0.65 ERA.

4) Alek Manoah, Blue Jays (1 first-place vote)
DraftKings Cy Young odds: 18-to-1

If the national…