With the MLB season winding down, pitching performances for playoff bound teams are getting more and more crucial. We saw some amazing pitching performances over the last week, so let’s take a look at just a few of the better ones. Will these performances affect the MLB Picks for the rest of the season?

Photo taken from Google Images c/o Zimbio

The King

Just over a week ago, we saw just the 23^rd perfect game in MLB history. What’s more amazing is that there have now been three this season, and we still have some regular season to go. Felix Hernandez struck out 12 in his perfect game, and he continues to prove that he is still one of the most dominating pitchers in the majors.

Sale sailing

Chris Sale pulled off something White Sox fans haven’t seen in a while, a sweep of the Yankees. Sale played an important role Wednesday evening in the rubber game, as he pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up only 3 hits and 1 earned run, while striking out 13 Yankees. Chicago leads the AL Central by 2 games.

Wainwright back

After missing the Cardinals’ World Series winning season in 2011, Adam Wainwright has come back from Tommy John this season and has pitched well. On Tuesday evening, Wainwright went the distance giving up only 5 hits and no earned runs, all while setting a career high in strikeouts with 12.

English: Stephen Strasburg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Strasburg continues to dominate

Even though the talk of him getting shut down is the main topic of conversation, Steven Strasburg has been pitching amazing this season. Strasburg got his 15^th win of the season Tuesday, as he went 6 innings, giving up four hits, one earned run and getting 10 strikeouts. The Nats came out yesterday and said they will have Strasburg miss his last three starts in order to not hit his innings limit before the playoffs. He has pitched 145 ½ innings this season, and the Nats say they will shut him down between 160-180 innings.