Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants named National League Player of the Week

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner has been named the National League Player of the Week for August 10-16. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.

Bumgarner led the Majors with 26 strikeouts and 18.0 innings pitched last week. The southpaw posted a perfect 2-0 record in two outings, earning his eighth and ninth career complete-game efforts. His 0.50 ERA (1 ER/18.0 IP) was the lowest among all Major Leaguers who made at least two starts last week. Bumgarner issued just a single walk and scattered eight hits across his two outings, holding opposing hitters to a .133 batting average. He capped the week with a completegame shutout in Sunday's series finale against the Washington Nationals, tying a career high with 14 strikeouts (also June 23rd vs. San Diego) in a 5-0 win at AT&T Park. In addition to his performance on the mound, Bumgarner helped his cause with his bat, going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI coming on a fifth-inning double and solo homer in the seventh. The blast was the fourth of the year for the North Carolina native, which marks the most in the Majors by a pitcher. He also ranks tops among big league hurlers with seven RBI this season. It marked his fourth career complete-game shutout (also: 6/8/12 vs. CIN; 8/3/14 at NYM; and 8/26/14 vs. COL). The performance came on the heels of a similarly-dominant effort on August 11th vs. Houston. The reigning World Series Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet fanned 12 Houston batters and allowed just one run on five hits across 9.0 innings in a 3-1 win. Bumgarner became the third Giants pitcher in the San Francisco era to fan seven consecutive batters (a career high) in the outing after retiring seven straight Astros from the first through third innings. With the stellar week, Bumgarner improved to 14-6 on the season. He is currently tied for the Major League lead in wins while his 174 strikeouts rank sixth. This is his first career Player of the Week Award.

Other noteworthy performances last week included Pittsburgh's Pedro Alvarez (.476, 10 H, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1.000 SLG) and Gregory Polanco (.483, 14 H, 2 3B, HR, 4 RBI, .724 SLG, .516 OBP); Arizona's David Peralta (.474, 9 H, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .842 SLG, .522 OBP); Cincinnati's Joey Votto (.407, 11 H, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .778 SLG); and Zack Greinke (2-0, 0.69 ERA, 14 SO, 13.0 IP) of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Madison Bumgarner will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.