For the second consecutive month, All-Star Gerrit Cole of the Houston Astros has been voted the American League Pitcher of the Month, and Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals has been named the National League Pitcher of the Month for July.

Cole earned his third career Pitcher of the Month Award, and is the first Astros hurler to win consecutive monthly honors since Dallas Keuchel accomplished the feat in April/May of his Cy Young Award-winning 2015 season. Strasburg claimed his fourth career NL Pitcher of the Month Award, most recently doing so in September 2017. This marks the second consecutive monthly award for a Nationals pitcher, following Stephen’s All-Star rotation-mate Max Scherzer. The duo is the first set of teammates to win back-to-back Pitcher of the Month Awards since Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr. of the Astros in April/May 2017.

Gerrit Cole, Houston Astros (@gerritcole45)

• Across five starts, compiled a perfect 4-0 record with 51 strikeouts, nine walks and a 1.85 ERA over 34.0 innings pitched, while permitting 21 hits and five home runs.

• Finished his dominant month in the midst of an eight-game winning streak dating back to May 27th, which matched his career-long streak from September 4, 2014 – April 29, 2015.

• Notched his 200th strikeout of the season in 133.1 innings pitched on July 17th against the Los Angeles Angels. Marked the second-fewest innings before reaching the 200-strikeout threshold in Baseball history, trailing only Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, who needed just 130.2 innings pitched during his

2001 Cy Young Award-winning campaign.

• Entered August with a 13.28 SO/9.0 IP ratio, which would be the second-highest full-season mark by a qualified hurler in Major League history, trailing only Johnson’s 13.41 SO/9.0 IP rate during his aforementioned 2001 season.

Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals (@stras37)

• Registered a perfect 5-0 record with 44 strikeouts and a 1.14 ERA across five starts, while limiting the opposition to just 22 hits and seven walks. Did not permit a home run.

• On July 3rd against the Miami Marlins, tossed 7.1 shutout innings with 14 strikeouts while allowing just two hits and a pair of walks to earn his 10th win of the season. Reached the 10-win mark for the sixth straight campaign.

• The dominant outing was the second of his career in which he pitched at least 7.0 scoreless innings with 14-or-more strikeouts while not permitting more than two hits (also September 15, 2015). Was the sixth

such outing overall in Nationals/Expos history and the first since Tanner Roark on April 23, 2016.

• Over the course of his impressive month, tossed three shutouts in which he pitched at least 6.0 innings, and did not record a start in which he allowed more than three runs.

Others receiving votes for AL Pitcher of the Month included Mike Clevinger (4-0, 1.74 ERA, 31.0 IP, 41 SO) of the Cleveland Indians; Eduardo Rodriguez (5-0, 2.03 ERA, 31.0 IP, 29 SO) of the Boston Red Sox; and Gerrit’s All-Star rotation-mate Justin Verlander (4-1, 2.25 ERA, 32.0 IP, 49 SO).

Others receiving votes for NL Pitcher of the Month included All-Star Jacob deGrom (2-0, 1.09 ERA, 33.0 IP, 46 SO) of the New York Mets; Jeff Samardzija (4-1, 2.09, 38.2 IP, 35 SO) of the San Francisco Giants; All-Star Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-0, 0.55 ERA, 32.2 IP, 23 SO) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; and Stephen’s rotation-mate Patrick Corbin (2-0, 1.95 ERA, 37.0 IP, 48 SO).