First baseman Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves has been named National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 19th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Freeman led the Majors with 17 hits, five doubles, 33 total bases, and a 1.065 slugging percentage last week while pacing the NL with a .548 (17-for-31) batting average. The left-handed-hitting slugger also ranked among League leaders with three home runs (T-2nd), eight RBI (2nd) and a .588 on-base percentage (2nd-), while scoring six runs.
Freeman finished the week with a career-high-tying four-hit effort in Atlanta's 6-0 win over the New York Mets on Sunday afternoon, as the visiting Braves completed a three-game sweep at Citi Field. It was the second multi-hit performance of the series for the 26-year-old and his fifth of last week alone. Freeman collected three hits in Thursday's series finale against Cincinnati, giving him 10 hits in the four-game home set at Turner Field. It marked the first time that a Braves hitter had collected 10 hits in a single series since Freeman did so in 2011 against Pittsburgh. In Wednesday's contest against the Reds, the two-time NL All-Star hit for the cycle for the first time in his career, becoming the first Braves player to do so since Mark Kotsay accomplished the feat in 2008. His sixth-inning home run knotted the game at six in an eventual 9-8, 13-inning victory for Atlanta. Freeman currently leads his club with 12 home runs, 72 hits, a .279 batting average, a .365 on-base percentage and a .492 slugging percentage on the season. This is his first career Player of the Week honor.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Freeman's Braves teammate Julio Teheran (1-1, 1.69 ERA, 15 SO, 16.0 IP); San Francisco's Buster Posey (.522, 7 R, 12 H, 4 RBI, .609 SLG, .577 OBP) and Jeff Samardzija (1-0, 1.00 ERA, 4 SO, 9.0 IP); Justin Turner (.462, 5 R, 12 H, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .962 SLG, .500 OBP) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Arizona's Zack Greinke (2-0, 1.80 ERA, 12 SO, 15.0 IP); and Miami's Tom Koehler (2-0, 1.50 ERA, 14 SO, 12.0 IP).
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Freddie Freeman will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.