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Carlos Rodon is becoming Mr. August

As the season gets late, Carlos Rodon gets stronger.

Chicago White Sox v Los Angeles Dodgers
Carlos Rodon has a career 2.08 ERA in the month of August.
Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Not starting his 2017 season until June 28th, Carlos Rodon has reached his midseason point after last night's start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With nine starts on hand and projected for eight more starts to end the season, Rodon's performance is getting noticeably steadier. A much-needed sigh of relief for those that got quite nervous how Rodon's season began.

Since his July 25th start against the Chicago Cubs where 11 of the 12 outs Rodon recorded were strikeouts, we've seen a pitcher make the necessary adjustments to get deeper into games. Which is a blessing considering how bad the White Sox bullpen is.

Carlos Rodon’s last four starts

Date Opponent Innings Hits Runs ER Walks Strikeouts HR Pitches Strikes Game Score
Date Opponent Innings Hits Runs ER Walks Strikeouts HR Pitches Strikes Game Score
Jul 30 CLE 6.2 6 1 1 2 9 1 110 69 65
Aug 4 BOS 7.2 6 2 2 0 11 1 113 73 70
Aug 10 HOU 8.0 9 2 2 0 4 1 98 70 60
Aug 16 LAD 7.1 5 2 2 4 4 1 104 62 60
Baseball-Reference.com

Consider the opponents faced during that stretch. Rodon is keeping the American League's worst team competitive deep into games against four of the league’s best teams. Even fans who want the team to tank every game can appreciate that effort.

Stepping back to look at Rodon's career numbers and there is most definitely a trend developing. Maybe the last four starts are the result of Rodon making necessary adjustments, or it's that time of year again.

Carlos Rodon’s career splits by month

Split W L ERA G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
Split W L ERA G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
April/March 1 3 4.45 7 5 0 30.1 29 17 15 3 14 29 1.42
May 2 1 3.72 10 9 0 55.2 65 26 23 6 26 50 1.64
June 2 4 4.11 11 11 0 61.1 65 31 28 7 27 66 1.50
July 2 8 6.68 12 12 0 62 75 48 46 14 35 80 1.77
August 5 1 2.08 13 13 1 86.1 67 23 20 8 24 77 1.05
Sept/Oct 7 3 3.45 10 10 0 62.2 56 27 24 6 23 64 1.26
Baseball-Reference.com

The difference between July and August is astounding. Even Rodon's performances in September have been quite good. For whatever reason, a switch flips on after the Trade Deadline, and Rodon goes from being a question mark to future staff ace. Which is encouraging, but also a bit teasing. He’s either sputtered out of the gate or didn’t pitch at all in the past two season’s first halves.

This recent stretch the past couple of weeks suggest another strong finish to this season for Rodon. Despite missing half of the year, Rodon has an outside chance of reaching the 2.0 bWAR mark for the first time in his young career. If only somehow the White Sox can learn how to bottle this type of success to use year round. Would go a great way to instill more hope that brighter days are ahead on the South Side.