HOUSTON, TX - Major League Baseball announced this afternoon that Houston Astros right-handed pitcher Justin Verlander has been named the American League Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 10-16. This marks the eighth career American League Player of the Week award for Verlander and his second this season. The other came the week of April 9-15. 
Over the past week, Verlander was 2-0 in two starts with a 1.93 ERA (3ER/14IP) with 21 strikeouts in just 14.0 innings pitched. He allowed just nine hits for a .184 opponent batting average. Verlander posted double-digit strikeouts in both of his starts. On Monday, in what was his first start back at Tiger Stadium since being acquired by the Astros, Verlander tallied 10 K's in his 7.0 innings of work in a 3-2 win over the Tigers. Yesterday afternoon, he tallied 11 K's in 7.0 innings while allowing just one run in a 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks. 
For the season, Verlander is 16-9 with a 2.67 ERA, and leads the AL with 269 strikeouts, the latter of which matches his career-high for a season. For the month of September, Verlander is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA (4 ER/21IP) and 29 strikeouts in 21.0 innings pitched. In recognition of his AL Player of the Week award, Verlander will be presented with a watch courtesy of Rockwell.
Prior to this season, Verlander won the AL Player of the Week Award for the weeks of May 22-28, 2006, June 11-17, 2007, May 2-8, 2011, June 13-19, 2011, Sept. 12-18, 2011 and Sept. 24-30, 2012. 
An Astros player has now been named AL Player of the Week four times in 2018. In addition to Verlander winning the award twice, Evan Gattis (June 11-17) and Alex Bregman (June 25-July 1) have also won the award. The Astros have also won two monthly awards this season, with Verlander capturing AL Pitcher of the Month honors for May and Bregman winning AL Player of the Month honors for June.   

-ASTROS-