Hall Lands Best of August Award
September 1, 2022 – American Association (AA) – Kansas City Monarchs News Release
Kansas City Monarchs pitcher Matt Hall
(Kansas City Monarchs, Credit: John Ellis)
Kansas City, Kan. – The Kansas City Monarchs returned today from a perfect 6-0 road trip, including a three-game sweep in Canada to announce that left-handed pitcher Matt Hall has been named the Rawlings Pitcher of the Month for August for the American Association. It is his third league award this season, having won two Pitcher-of-the-Week awards earlier this season.
The Lee’s Summit, Missouri native went 5-0 for the month in five starts, tossing five-of-six quality starts and going at least five innings in all of his starting nods. Hall threw 31 innings, giving up just three earned runs with 48 strikeouts. He had three games with at least 10 strikeouts and one on August 20 in Lincoln where he punched out 12.
“We are so excited as an organization to announce Matt as the pitcher of the month and it is a deserved honor. He means so much to the organization on and off the field,” said Monarchs Manager Joe Calfapietra.
Hall, who also serves as the pitching coach for the club, has gone 10-2 this season for the Monarchs in 14 starts, yielding 10 earned runs in 82 innings of work with a team high 113 strikeouts. The lefty currently has the lowest ERA (1.10) for a single season in franchise history as well as the lowest opponents average against at .197.
Hall was named the Poinstreak Pitcher of the Week the first time this season for the week ending May 22nd after making two starts and surrendering just one earned run in 11 innings with 12 strikeouts. Hall would follow that week up with three consecutive starts and with three consecutive wins, and he would have his contract transferred to the San Francisco Giants on June 12.
Hall returned to the Monarchs on July 14 and allowed just three earned runs in 37 innings with 48 strikeouts while notching six quality starts in seven outings through August 14. He was named the Pitcher of the Week for second time this season for the week ending August 14th. Hall went 2-0 for the week and tossed 14 scoreless innings, scattering five hits with 18 strikeouts.
Hailing from Lee’s Summit, Hall attended Lee’s Summit West High School and played collegiately at Missouri State University where he was a sixth-round draft pick in the 2015 draft by the Detroit Tigers. Hall had his contract purchased on September 11, 2018 and made his Major League debut on September 15, 2018. He was traded after the 2018 season to Boston and appeared in four games for the Red Sox.
This season under Hall’s watch as pitching coach, the Monarchs have the second lowest team ERA (4.43) in the league and have set a franchise record for strikeouts (928) in a season, and the Monarchs will need to average four punch outs a game over the next four games to break the American Association mark for strikeouts (943) as a staff in a single season, a record set by Chicago last season.
The Monarchs return home after a 6-0 road trip, including their second sweep in August against the Winnipeg Goldeyes in Canada. Kansas City is guaranteed their fourth straight playoff appearance but still do not know their final seeding. The club currently sits 1.5 games behind division-leading Fargo-Moorhead who Kansas City will host this weekend at Legends Field for the last four games of the regular season.
The Monarchs and RedHawks begin their four-game series Friday night (9/2) at Legends Field in KCK. The game time is set for 7:00 pm, and the game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.
Tickets to all Monarchs games including any possible playoff games can be purchased by
calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.
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