Tommy Hanson wins NL Rookie of the Month

Tommy Hanson’s resounding first month in the majors was rewarded Thursday when the Braves pitcher was named National League Rookie of the Month for June.

He finished 4-0 with a 2.48 ERA and a .222 opponents’ average in five starts — his first five major-league games — including wins against Boston and the New York Yankees in his past two.

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Kent D. Johnson/kjohnson@ajc.com

Tommy Hanson, the National League Rookie of the Month for June.

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“I definitely didn’t expect to come up here and do this,” said Hanson, whose current streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings is the longest by a Braves rookie starter since Pete Smith’s 20-inning streak in 1988.

After allowing six earned runs in his debut June 7 against Milwaukee, Hanson is 4-0 with an 0.78 ERA in his past four starts.

“It’s very much earned,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said of the honor for Hanson, 22, who was rated the second-best pitching prospect by Baseball America behind Tampa Bay lefty David Price.

Hanson is the second Brave named NL Rookie of the Month since the award’s inception in 2001, after pitcher Jair Jurrjens was honored in June 2008.

“To come up and get four wins, it’s definitely exciting,” Hanson said. “I just want to build off this. The biggest thing is I’m happy about going out and helping the team get wins.”

The Braves are 5-0 in the 6-foot-6 redhead’s starts, and his wins against the Yankees and Red Sox were the team’s only wins in that six-game stretch against the American League superpowers last week. He became the first NL rookie to beat those two teams in consecutive starts.

“It’s a big deal, it really is,” Cox said of Hanson’s immediate success, particularly with so much attention focused on him. “To come up this time of the season and do that … There’s a lot of press following him around. He was betting watched pretty closely, his debut.”

Hanson is the first Braves pitcher of the modern era (since 1900) to not allow a run in three consecutive starts. The last run against him came in the third inning of his second start June 12 at Baltimore.

Hanson also is the second Braves pitcher since 1900 to have a 4-0 or better record in his first five games in the majors. Larry McWilliams was 4-0 in his first five in 1978.