Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers Named American League Player of the Week
Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending October 4th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Beltre batted .448 (13-for-29) with six runs scored, four doubles, two home runs and 13 RBI over seven games to claim his fifth career weekly honor, last winning with the Rangers on July 7, 2013. Among AL leaders for the concluding period of the 2015 campaign, Adrian finished first in RBI, tied for first in hits, doubles and total bases (23), third in batting average, tied for fourth in slugging percentage (.793) and tied for fifth in on-base percentage (.484).
In Thursday night's opening game of the Rangers' pivotal series with the Los Angeles Angels, the slugging third baseman delivered a tie-breaking three-run double in the fifth inning to give Texas a 4-1 lead. It was the third go-ahead hit of three-or-more RBI by a Rangers player this season, all coming in wins over the previous 14 games (Mitch Moreland on 9/17 vs. Houston and Elvis Andrus on 9/23 at Oakland). On Sunday afternoon against the Angels at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Beltre went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a home run and three RBI. It was the 413th home run of his career and he passed Alfonso Soriano for 50th on the all-time home run list. The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native is one of only four players to spend at least 75 percent of his career at the hot corner and reach the 400-homer mark, joining Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt (548) and Eddie Mathews (512), as well as Chipper Jones (468). The four-time AL All-Star hit safely in 19 of Texas' last 23 games, batting .424 (39-for-92) with 11 doubles, five home runs and 33 RBI. For the month of September, the 18-year-veteran led the AL with 29 RBI, tying the second-highest monthly total of his career (September 2011). Additionally, since August 15th, Beltre posted an MLB-high 50 RBI in just 47 games to lead the Rangers to an impressive 31-17 record. Led by the star slugger's hot finish to the season, Texas won its first AL West division title since 2011 and advanced to the Postseason for the first time since its Wild Card berth in 2012.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Edwin Encarnacion (.389, 6 R, 4 HR, 6 RBI) of the Toronto Blue Jays; Chris Davis (.364, 7 R, 4 HR, 7 RBI) and Manny Machado (8 R, 5 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB) of the Baltimore Orioles; George Springer (.481, 6 R, 13 H, 4 2B) of the Houston Astros; Albert Pujols (.379, 8 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI) of the Angels; and Yordano Ventura (1-0, 0.64 ERA, 14.0 IP, 17 SO) of the Kansas City Royals.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Adrian Beltre will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.