Nationals sweep NL monthly awards: Stephen Strasburg named Pitcher of the Month; Daniel Murphy is Player of the Month

Washington Nationals’ right-hander Stephen Strasburg and Nats’ second baseman Daniel Murphy swept the National League’s monthly awards.

Strasburg was named the NL Pitcher of the Month today and Murphy was named the NL Player of the Month for the month of July.

In five July outings , Strasburg, 28, was (4-1), suffering his first loss of the season in 19 starts to that point and posting a 2.08 ERA with 12 walks (3.12 BB/9), 37 Ks (9.61 K/9) and a .127/.208/.220 line against in 34 ⅔ IP.

Murphy, 31, was 27 for 78 in 22 games in July (.346/.372/.744), hitting 11 doubles, a triple and six home runs, with four walks and eight Ks in 86 plate appearances.

In his first season with the Nationals after signing a 3-year/$37.5M free agent deal this winter, Murphy currently leads the National League with a .356 AVG, a .623 SLG, 136 total hits, 57 extra base hits and 43 multi-hit games, and he leads all NL second baseman with 20 HRs and 79 RBIs.

Six of his 23 RBIs in July brought home a go-ahead run.

Strasburg and Murphy are the second set of Nationals to sweep the NL’s monthly awards after Max Scherzer and Bryce Harper were named the Pitcher and Player of the Month, respectively, in May of 2015.

Major League Baseball announced the awards on the MLB Network this afternoon.

Strasburg, who earned a POTM nod for the second time in his career, and Murphy (who got the nod earlier this season, May) are the 12th and 13th Nats to win the monthly awards, joining Chad Cordero (June, 2005), Gio Gonzalez (May, 2012), Jordan Zimmermann (July, 2012), Scherzer (May/June 2015), Jayson Werth (July 2013/2014) and Harper (May, 2015/April 2016) on the list of previous award winners.