Bartolo Colon of the Oakland Athletics named the American League Pitcher of the Month for June

Starting pitcher Bartolo Colon of the Oakland Athletics has been voted American League Pitcher of the Month for June.

Colon compiled a perfect 5-0 record with a 1.75 ERA, nine walks and 19 strikeouts in 36.0 innings pitched over five starts in June to claim his fourth career monthly award, last winning in August 2005 amidst his A.L. Cy Young Award-winning season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Dan Haren was the last Oakland hurler to get tabbed with the league's top monthly pitching accolade in May 2007. Among A.L. leaders for the month, Bartolo finished first in ERA (minimum 26.0 innings pitched) and was tied for second with Detroit's Max Scherzer in wins.

In his first start of the month on June 5th, the 40-year-old allowed one run on eight hits with four strikeouts over 7.0 innings pitched to lead the Athletics to a 6-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. On June 11th, the Dominican Republic native tossed three-hit ball over 6.0 shutout innings against the New York Yankees as the A's went on to defeat the Bronx Bombers, 6-4, in Oakland. Colon, who is currently one out shy of 2,500.0 career innings, struck out three in the 102-pitch outing. The 16-year veteran continued his winning ways on June 16th, allowing two runs on eight hits with three strikeouts in 7.0 innings as Oakland topped the visiting Seattle Mariners, 10-2. After battling a 35-pitch second inning in which Seattle tallied a pair of runs, the right-hander settled down to retire 12 straight batters and 16-of-17 on just 52 pitches over the next five innings in the win. On June 21st in Seattle, the two-time All-Star allowed three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in 8.0 innings as the Athletics doubled up the Mariners, 6-3.

Colon improved to 17-12 with a 3.92 ERA in 34 career starts against Seattle, the most victories among active pitchers against the M's.

The triumph also marked his 10th win at Seattle's Safeco Field, the most among visiting pitchers. In his final start of the month on June 28th, Bartolo allowed one run on six hits with five strikeouts over 8.0 innings to lead Oakland to a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at O.co Coliseum. It marked Colon's eighth straight winning start, becoming the first Athletic to win eight consecutive starts since Barry Zito did the same from June 28-August 4, 2005. Colon also had eight straight winning decisions with a pair of no-decisions over a 10-start span from July 21-September 10, 2005 with the Angels.

Others receiving votes included Scherzer (5-0, 2.38 ERA, 40 SO); Chris Tillman (6-0, 2.68 ERA, 29 SO) of the Baltimore Orioles; Ervin Santana (2-0, 1.99 ERA, 32 SO) and Greg Holland (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 9 SV, 5 H, 3 BB, 19 SO) of the Kansas City Royals; and Joe Nathan (11 SV, 0.63 ERA) and Yu Darvish (1-1, 2.31 ERA, 46 SO) of the Texas Rangers.

The American League Pitcher of the Month, Bartolo Colon, will receive a specially designed trophy, suitably engraved, for his accomplishment.