San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner was historically effective in August, joining Curt Schilling as one of two pitchers in the modern era to strike out 55 or more batters while walking three or fewer in a calendar month, per ESPN Stats & Info.
The lefty had a 1.57 ERA, 0.63 WHIP and 4-1 record during his incredible August, which included a pair of complete-game shutouts and a 56-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio a for the month. He had a trio of double-digit strikeout performances among his six outings while recording a quality start each time out.
The 56 strikeouts were easily Bumgarner‘s personal best for a calendar month, surpassing the 48 he had in May of this year. With 199 for the season, he’s already matched his career high set last year after consecutive seasons (2011 and 2012) with 191 punchouts.
Having narrowly missed 200 strikeouts in each of the last three years, Bumgarner is set to hit the mark this Saturday, when he’ll face major league strikeout leader David Price and the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.
Schilling posted an insane 62-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the Arizona Diamondbacks in May of 2002 on his way to finishing the year with 316 strikeouts. No pitcher has reached 300 strikeouts in a season since both Schilling and teammate Randy Johnson (334) did so that year.
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