Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending June 5th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Longoria batted .464 (13-for-28) with seven runs scored, five home runs, three doubles and nine RBI over seven games to claim his seventh career AL Player of the Week Award, last winning on May 12, 2013. Among AL leaders, Evan finished the period first in total bases (31) and slugging percentage (1.107), tied for first in hits and home runs, second in batting average, tied for third in doubles, fourth in RBI and on-base percentage (.516), and tied for sixth in runs scored.
On Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium, the California native went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a run scored. The three-hit output marked a season-high for the Long Beach State product and was his first multi-double game since September 11, 2015 vs. Boston. In Sunday's series finale against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field, the three-time AL All-Star logged his first multi-home run game of the season to go along with three runs scored and three RBI. Homering in each of the three previous games against Minnesota, the third overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft became the first player in Rays franchise history to homer in each game of a four-game series. This is the sixth occasion that a Rays player has homered in four consecutive games, with Carlos Peña's club-record six games (June 6-12, 2010) being the most recent. With a pair of home runs from Logan Morrison as well, the Rays slugged four home runs as a team on Sunday for the fifth time this season. It marks the first time in club history that they've hit at least four homers in five of their first 55 games, a feat they only accomplished twice in all of 2015. Longoria, who is the club's all-time leader in home runs (219), RBI (742), doubles (277) and extra-base hits (509), enters play today in the midst of a nine-game hitting streak. During his torrid streak, the nine-year veteran has batted .457 (16-for-35) with eight runs scored, three doubles, six home runs and 14 RBI.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Evan's aforementioned teammate Morrison (.393, 7 R, 4 HR, 7 RBI); Mookie Betts (.379, 9 R, 5 HR, 10 RBI) and Steven Wright (2-0, 1.29 ERA, 1 CG, 10 SO) of the Red Sox; Kyle Seager (.481, 9 R, 13 H, 12 RBI) of the Seattle Mariners; George Springer (.406, 8 R, 3 2B, 8 RBI) of the Houston Astros; and Marco Estrada (2-0, 1.13 ERA, 16.0 IP, 11 SO) of the Toronto Blue Jays.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Evan Longoria will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.