Mike Clevinger of the Cleveland Indians has been voted the American League Pitcher of the Month for August, and Jack Flaherty of the St. Louis Cardinals has been named the National League Pitcher of the Month.
Clevinger earned his first career Pitcher of the Month Award and is the first Indians hurler to take home monthly honors since Corey Kluber, who did so in June, August and September during his 2017 Cy Young Award-winning campaign. Flaherty also claimed his first career NL Pitcher of the Month Award and is the first Cardinals pitcher to accomplish the feat since Adam Wainwright in September 2014.
Mike Clevinger, Cleveland Indians (@mikeanthony)
• Across six starts, compiled a perfect 5-0 record with 51 strikeouts, 11 walks and a 1.96 ERA over 36.2 innings pitched, while permitting 28 hits and one home run.
• Posted the best start of his award-winning month on August 29th at Detroit, earning his 10th victory of the season with 8.0 shutout innings and 10 strikeouts while not allowing a free pass. Marked his 10th career double-digit strikeout outing and his first without issuing a walk.
• Tallied his 500th career strikeout on August 24th against the Kansas City Royals. Became the second-fastest pitcher to reach the milestone in an Indians uniform in terms of innings pitched (448.0) behind
only Cody Allen (389.1). Was the fastest starting pitcher to do so in franchise history.
• Over the course of his four-year career, Clevinger now owns a 12-1 record to go along with 136 strikeouts, 44 walks and a 2.61 ERA across 24 appearances (17 starts) during the month of August.
Jack Flaherty, St. Louis Cardinals (@jflare)
• Registered a 4-1 record with 47 strikeouts and a 0.71 ERA across six starts, while limiting the opposition to 19 hits and nine walks. Permitted just a pair of home runs.
• Began his award-winning month in dominant fashion, tossing 7.0 scoreless innings in each of his first three starts. Earned two wins after logging 26 strikeouts with four walks and eight hits allowed.
• Allowed just four runs in a seven-start span from July 7th–August 13th, recording a 0.79 ERA across 45.1 innings of work. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, marked the lowest ERA in a seven-start span by a Cardinals starting pitcher since Chris Carpenter in 2005 (0.45) and Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in 1968
(0.43), both Cy Young Award-winning seasons.
• Earned his eighth win of the season on August 23rd against the Colorado Rockies after pitching 6.0 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts while permitting just three hits. Marked his 14th appearance of the season in which he tossed at least 6.0 innings while not surrendering more than four hits, the most in the NL and the third-most in the Majors behind AL Cy Young Award candidates Justin Verlander (18) and Gerrit Cole (16) of the Houston Astros.
Others receiving votes for AL Pitcher of the Month included Mike’s rotation-mate and 2019 Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP Shane Bieber (2-3, 2.83 ERA, 41.1 IP, 50 SO); James Paxton (6-0, 3.57 ERA, 35.1 IP, 39 SO) of the New York Yankees; and Ryan Yarbrough (1.50 ERA, 30.0 IP, 33 SO, 2 BB) of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Others receiving votes for NL Pitcher of the Month included All-Star Sonny Gray (4-0, 0.74 ERA, 36.2 IP, 44 SO) of the Cincinnati Reds; All-Star Walker Buehler (2-1, 1.69 ERA, 32.0 IP, 48 SO) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; José Quintana (4-1, 2.02 ERA, 35.2 IP, 39 SO) of the Chicago Cubs; Max Fried (4-0, 3.51 ERA, 42 SO, 8 BB) of the Atlanta Braves; and All-Star Jacob deGrom (2-1, 2.18 ERA, 40 SO, 5 BB) of the New York Mets.