Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel has been named the American League Player of the Week presented by W.B. Mason for the period ending September 23rd. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Gurriel batted .462 (12-for-26) with eight runs scored, three doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI across six games played to earn his first career AL Player of the Week Award. Among qualified AL leaders, Gurriel finished first in RBI; second in total bases (24); tied for second in runs scored; tied for third in extra-base hits (6) and home runs; fourth in slugging percentage (.923); and tied for fourth in batting average and hits. Yuli is the fourth different (fifth time) Astros player to earn weekly honors this season, joining his teammates Justin Verlander (September 16th & April 15th), Alex Bregman (July 1st) and Evan Gattis (June 17th).
On Friday against the Los Angeles Angels at Minute Maid Park, Gurriel batted 3-for-4 with two home runs and seven RBI, the most RBI by an Astros player since J.R. Towles on September 20, 2007. During his historic contest at the plate, the Cuba native clubbed his third career grand slam and second of the season (also June 24th). With the round-tripper, the Astros matched their single-season Club record with seven grand slams in 2018 (also: 2001 & 2007). In addition, Yuli's brother, Lourdes, logged a pair of home runs in Toronto's game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the duo became the first set of brothers to both record multi-homer games on the same day in MLB history. Over the weekend, Yuli logged at least two hits and a pair of runs scored in three consecutive games from Friday-Sunday, becoming the first Astros player to accomplish the feat since Kazuo Matsui (April 20-22, 2008). Gurriel, a right-handed-hitting slugger, enters play today in the midst of a nine-game hitting streak dating back to September 14th, and is now batting .288 on the season. About to finish his third Major League campaign with the Astros, the 34-year-old owns a career slash line of .290/.323/.450 to go along with 151 runs scored, 83 doubles, 34 home runs and 174 RBI.
Other noteworthy performances last week included outfielder Tommy Pham (.481, 8 R, 2 3B, 3 HR), starting pitcher Blake Snell (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 11.2 IP, 16 SO) and infielder Joey Wendle (.462, 12 H, 7 2B, 5 RBI) of the Rays; second baseman Robinson Canó (.619, 13 H, 5 2B, 7 RBI) of the Seattle Mariners; outfielder Stephen Piscotty (.421, 9 R, 4 XBH, 9 RBI) of the Oakland Athletics; outfielder Nicholas Castellanos (.500, 13 H, 5 2B, 5 RBI) of the Detroit Tigers; and starting pitcher J.A. Happ (2 GS, 0.82 ERA, 11.0 IP, 13 SO), outfielder Aaron Hicks (.381, 7 R, 5 XBH, 7 RBI) and first baseman Luke Voit (.368, 7 R, 4 HR, 8 RBI) of the New York Yankees.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Yuli Gurriel will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.