HOUSTON, TX - Major League Baseball announced today that Astros RHP Gerrit Cole has been named the American League Pitcher of the Month for September and the American League Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 23-29.
This marked Cole’s third monthly award of the season, as he also won the award for June and July. This also marks the 32nd time for an Astros hurler to win Pitcher of the Month honors. Cole becomes the second Astros pitcher to win three monthly awards in the same season, also Dallas Keuchel in 2015. Cole also recorded his first weekly award of his career and is the Astros fourth weekly award winner of the season, joining Yuli Gurriel, George Springer and Justin Verlander.
In September, Cole, who is a solid Cy Young candidate, was 5-0 with a 1.07 ERA. For the month he led AL starters in strikeouts (74), opponent batting average (.140) and WHIP (0.64) was tied for first in wins and second in ERA (1.07). For the season, Cole was 20-5 with an AL-best 2.50 ERA and a ML-best 326 strikeouts. Among AL starters Cole ranked second in opponent batting average (.186), WHIP (0.89) and wins (20). Cole also set an Astros franchise record for strikeouts in a single season with 326, passing J.R Richard’s 313 strikeouts set in 1979. He also recorded 21 double-digit strikeout games this season, becoming the fourth pitcher to accomplish this feat in a single season, also Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson (2x) and Sandy Koufax. Cole finished the season on a 16-game winning streak, a franchise record and the longest single-season streak in the Majors since Roger Clemens also had a 16-game streak in 2001.
For the week, Cole was 2-0 in his two starts with a 0.75 ERA (1ER/12.0IP) with 24 strikeouts and two walks, while allowing just six hits (.143 opponent batting average). Cole has now won the Pitcher of the Month Award four times in his career, three times this season and once for the Pirates, in April of 2015.