Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 25th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Bellinger posted a slash line of .370/.400/1.037 with seven runs scored, three doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI over seven games to claim his second career NL Player of the Week Award, last winning earlier this season on May 8th. Cody, who made his Major League debut on April 25th, is the first player in the Majors this season to garner multiple weekly honors. The 21-year-old rookie paced the Majors in home runs, RBI and total bases (28), while among NL leaders, finished the period third in slugging percentage, tied for fourth in hits and tied for fifth in doubles.
Bellinger began his award-winning week in historic fashion last Monday, going 3-for-5 with a pair of home runs and four RBI. The multi-homer effort was his fifth of the 2017 season and propelled him to becoming the fastest player in MLB history to reach 21 round-trippers (51 career games). Additionally, the Scottsdale, Arizona native surpassed Adrian Beltre (20 HR, 2000) to log the most home runs as a Dodger in a season at age 21-or-younger. The following night, the dynamic slugger connected for his 22nd home run of the season in a game that saw Los Angeles record a season-high-tying five homers. With the prolific output, the Dodgers had blasted 27 home runs in its previous 10 games, establishing a new franchise record for homers over any 10-game span. For Bellinger, it was his 10th home run over his last 10 games (June 10th-20th), and he became just the second player in team history to log 10 homers in 10 contests, joining Shawn Green (May 2002). In addition, Cody became the first rookie in Major League history to accomplish the feat, and was the first big league player to do so since Troy Tulowitzki (September 8-18, 2010). In Sunday's contest against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium, Bellinger finished his extraordinary week with another three-hit effort, including two home runs and four RBI. Not even halfway through the season, Cody enters play today with six multi-homer efforts, and trails only Mark McGwire (7) for the most multi-homer games as a rookie in MLB history. The overall single-season mark of 11 multi-homer games is held by Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sammy Sosa (1998).
Outfielder Michael Taylor (.444, 7 R, 3 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI) of the Washington Nationals was also impressive last week. The 26-year-old recorded his first multi-homer game of the season on Saturday, and second of his career (also June 19, 2016), while matching a career high with four hits. Starting pitcher R.A. Dickey (2-0, 0.64 ERA, 14.0 IP, 12 SO) of the Atlanta Braves logged two outstanding starts last week, posting 7.0 innings and six strikeouts in both outings. Other noteworthy performances last week included Cody's teammate Justin Turner (.455, 9 R, 4 XBH, 6 RBI); outfielder Curtis Granderson (.455, 7 R, 6 XBH, 5 RBI) of the New York Mets; starting pitcher Gerritt Cole (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 10 SO) of the Pittsburgh Pirates; and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (.417, 8 R, 3 XBH, 8 RBI) of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Cody Bellinger will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.