Following a month in which he went 6-0 with a 1.00 ERA (5 ER/45.0 IP) and 68 strikeouts and five walks in six starts, Washington Nationals right-handed pitcher Max Scherzer was named National League Pitcher of the Month for June on Wednesday. Major League Baseball made the announcement on MLB Network.

Washington’s surge during the month of June was led by Scherzer, who put together an historic calendar month in addition to helping the Nationals to wins in each of his starts. Some notable historic accomplishments for Scherzer include:

• He became the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history (since 1908) to strike out at least 68 batters while issuing no more than five walks in a calendar month.

• He became one of four pitchers in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to record a 1.00 ERA and 68 strikeouts in a calendar month, joining Pedro Martinez (Sept./Oct. 1999), Roger Clemens (Aug. 1998) and Randy Johnson (June 1997).

• He recorded two games with at least 10 strikeouts and zero walks, running his career total to 24 such games, third-most in Major League history.

• He moved into the top 25 on Major League Baseball’s all-time strikeout list with 2,619 career strikeouts.

Across his six starts in June, Scherzer struck out at least 10 batters in five of the six starts, including four straight games. He fanned a season-high 15 batters on June 2 at Cincinnati and capped the month by striking out 14 Detroit Tigers on June 30 at Detroit.

Not only was Scherzer dominant with the strikeout, he allowed opposing batters to hit just .156 with a .196 on-base percentage and a .256 slugging percentage. He surrendered just 25 hits and 10 extra-base hits (7 2B, 3 HR).

On the season, Scherzer leads Major League Baseball in strikeouts (170), innings pitched (122.1) and leads MLB pitchers in Wins Above Replacement (5.0) according to FanGraphs.com. He leads the National League in strikeouts per 9.0 IP (12.51) and home runs allowed per 9.0 IP (0.66) while ranking second in earned run average (2.43).

This is the sixth monthly honor of Scherzer’s career. He was last named National League Pitcher of the Month in 2018 when he went back-to-back In April and May.

This award marks the fourth award taken home by a Nationals player so far in 2019:

Name                          Award

Anthony Rendon          Play of the Week (May 28)

Victor Robles               Play of the Week (June 17)

Max Scherzer              Player of the Week (July 1)

Max Scherzer              Pitcher of the Month (June)