Matt Harvey named NL Pitcher of the Month for April

Major League Baseball today announced that New York Mets righthanded pitcher Matt Harvey won the National League Pitcher of the Month award for April. It is Harvey's first such award. He won the Pitcher of the Week award for the week of April 8-14.

Harvey, 24, went 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA (seven earned runs/40.1 innings) and 46 strikeouts in six April games. His four wins tied for the NL lead, while his 1.56 ERA ranked third in the league for the month. His 46 strikeouts tied for fourth.

Harvey struck out 10 and went 7.0 shutout innings in his season debut to beat San Diego, 8-4, on April 3. The 10 strikeouts marked Harvey's third career double-digit strikeout game in his first 11 starts as a Met. That tied for the second most in franchise history, behind only the four Dwight Gooden had in 1984. Pedro Martinez (1995), Nolan Ryan (1966-1968) and Jerry Koosman (1967-1968) also had three.

The righthander became the first pitcher in since 1900 to win his first four starts of the season, while allowing no more than 10 hits combined in those four starts. The following week, Tampa Bay's Matt Moore became the second pitcher to accomplish the feat. 

Major League Baseball named Harvey the National League Player of the Week for the week of April 8-14. Harvey went 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA (two earned runs/15.0 innings) during the week. He allowed five hits, issued four walks and struck out 15. 

Harvey is the first Mets pitcher to earn the Pitcher of the Month award since R.A. Dickey won for June, 2012.