Cole named AL Pitcher of the Month, Alvarez named AL Rookie of the Month

Both Astros were outstanding in the month of June

HOUSTON, TX — Major League Baseball announced today that Astros RHP Gerrit Cole has been named American League Pitcher of the Month for June and that Astros OF Yordan Alvarez has been named AL Rookie of the Month for June.

Both Cole and Alvarez posted outstanding numbers in the month of June. Cole was 3–0 in his six starts for the month with a 1.89 ERA (8ER/38IP) and 49 strikeouts in his 38 innings pitched. Cole, who was named to his third All-Star team on Sunday, currently leads the AL in strikeouts with 161 in just 109.2 innings of work. His 13.21 strikeouts per 9.0 innings pitched ratio is tops in the Majors. Today’s announcement marks the second Pitcher of the Month Award for Cole as he also won the NL award while with the Pirates in April of 2015.

This also marks the 30th time that an Astros hurler has won Pitcher of the Month honors. The last was RHP Justin Verlander in May of 2018.

Alvarez had an historic first month in the Major Leagues, leading all AL players in both OPS (1.139) and slugging pct. (.733). In his 16 games in June, he hit .317 with seven home runs and 21 RBI. Alvarez made history in becoming the first player ever to tally both seven home runs and 16 RBI in his first 12 Major League games. He is also just one of five players ever to reach 21 RBI in his first 16 MLB games and tied the MLB record for homers (7) in his first 12 games. At the time of this callup to the Astros, Alvarez was leading the Pacific Coast League in both home runs (23) and RBI (71), reaching those numbers in just 56 games at Triple A Round Rock. His 30 home runs overall on the season (7 with HOU, 23 with Round Rock) are second in all of baseball to Christian Yellich’s 31 homers.

Alvarez is the eighth Astros player to earn Rookie of the Month honors and the first since Yuli Gurriel (July of 2017).