Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Kendrys Morales has been named the American League Player of the Week presented by W.B. Mason for the period ending August 26th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Morales slashed .478/1.391/.500 with eight runs scored, seven home runs and 12 RBI across six games played to earn his fifth career AL Player of the Week Award, and the first since September 11, 2016 while playing for Kansas City. Among qualified AL leaders, Kendrys finished the week first in batting average, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and total bases (32); tied for first in runs scored and hits; and tied for third in on-base percentage. This is Toronto's second weekly honor of the 2018 campaign, with the first coming from Morales' teammate Justin Smoak for the opening week of the 2018 campaign.
Morales enters play today having homered in each of his last seven games, one shy of the all-time Major League record of eight shared by Pittsburgh's Dale Long (1956), Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees (1987) and Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners (1993). With his historic run, Kendrys is now one of just seven players in Major League history to record a home run in seven consecutive games, and the first since Kevin Mench of the Texas Rangers in 2006. Others to accomplish the feat include San Francisco's Barry Bonds (seven straight in 2004) and Hall of Famer Jim Thome of the Cleveland Indians (seven straight in 2002). The 35-year-old Morales began his week with a two-homer performance last Monday at home against the Baltimore Orioles, lifting the Blue Jays to a 5-3 win. With his homer on Sunday afternoon, the Fomento, Cuba native set a new Blue Jays franchise mark for homers in consecutive games, eclipsing the previous record of six straight games set by José Cruz Jr. in 2001. Morales, a 2015 Silver Slugger Award winner, recorded multiple hits in four of his six games played last week and has also posted multi-hit games in six of his last nine played. During that stretch, the switch-hitting slugger is batting .500 (16-for-32) with eight home runs and 14 RBI. The Blue Jays, who will open a three-game set at Baltimore this evening, went 5-1 during Morales' award-winning week.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell (2-0, 1.50 ERA, 12.0 IP, 19 SO), who picked up his 16th victory of the season on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox; Morales' Blue Jays teammate Billy McKinney (.400, 6 R, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 2 2B, 4 BB); Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts (.323, 4 R, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 2 2B); Cleveland Indians outfielder Melky Cabrera (.474, 7 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 2B, 5 BB); Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman (.355, 7 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 3 2B, 3 BB) and starting pitcher Mike Fiers (2-0, 0.71 ERA, 12.2 IP, 15 SO); and Marwin Gonzalez (.385, 6 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 3 2B) of the Houston Astros.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Kendrys Morales will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.