Madison Bumgarner wins National League Pitcher of the Month for August

For the second time this year, Madison Bumgarner has won the National League Pitcher of the Month, taking the award for his superlative August. At the beginning of the month, I lamented not making a bigger deal of this when he won in May. So let's make a bigger deal out of this.

Here's what Bumgarner did in August:

Three walks and 56 strikeouts.

Guh.

Everything about Bumgarner's August was better than his award-winning May, including the ERA, the walks, and the strikeouts. And, again, Bumgarner was the best pitcher in the National League in May. Clayton Kershaw had an ERA over 4.00 in May, the slouch.

Let's update the list of Giants who have won the NL Pitcher of the Month Award since the award began in 1975:

Vida Blue - June, 1978
Ed Whitson - August, 1981
Bill Laskey - May, 1983
Mike Krukow - September, 1986
Rick Reuschel - May, 1989
Bill Swift - April, 1992
Bill Swift - July, 1993
Orel Hershiser - May, 1998
Russ Ortiz - August, 2000
Jason Schmidt - May, 2004
Noah Lowry - August, 2005
Jason Schmidt - May, 2006
Tim Lincecum - June, 2009
Madison Bumgarner - May, 2014
Madison Bumgarner - August, 2014

Bumgarner becomes the third two-time winner as a Giant, joining Bill Swift and Jason Schmidt. He's the first Giants pitcher to win the award twice in the same year.

It's kind of a silly award, about as meaningful as "Best pitcher from April 14 through May 13." But it's still cool. It's still a Giant winning the thing. It's still rare and worth celebrating because Madison Bumgarner, dammit, Madison Bumgarner.