Chris Sale named American League Pitcher of the Month

Left-hander Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox has been named American League Pitcher of the Month for May.  It is the first career monthly award for Sale and second for the White Sox this season.  Jake Peavy was named AL Pitcher of the Month for April. 

Sale, 23, went 4-1 with a 1.71 ERA (6 ER/31.2 IP), 35 strikeouts and a .181 (21-116) opponents average over six games (five starts) during the month.  He led the AL in ERA, ranked third in opponents average and eighth in strikeouts.

Sale finished the month on a three-game winning streak with a 0.92 ERA (2 ER/19.2 IP).  He worked 7.0 scoreless IP with 15 strikeouts in a victory on May 28 at Tampa Bay.  The 15 strikeouts tied for the second-most in franchise history (fifth time) and were the most by a White Sox pitcher since Jack Harshman struck out a club-record 16 on July 25, 1954.  Sale also set a Tropicana Field record for strikeouts.

Sale, who is in his first full season as a starter, is 6-2 with a AL-best 2.34 ERA (15 ER/57.2 IP), 61 strikeouts and six quality starts over 10 games (nine starts).  He has allowed three runs or less in all nine starts.

It is the fifth AL honor received by a White Sox player in 2012.  In addition to Peavy’s monthly honor, Paul Konerko (April 23-29 and May 21-27) and Philip Humber (April 16-22) earned AL Player of the Week honors.

The last time Chicago won multiple AL Pitcher of the Month awards in a season was 2005, when Jon Garland (April), Mark Buehrle (May) and Jose Contreras (September) all earned the honor.