Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Patrick Corbin has been named the National League Player of the Week presented by W.B. Mason for the period ending April 22nd.
In two starts last week, Corbin posted a 2-0 record while allowing two earned runs over 15.0 innings pitched to claim his first career Player of the Week Award, and the first for a D-backs pitcher since his rotation-mate Robbie Ray on August 21, 2016. The 2013 All-Star tallied 19 strikeouts and issued just two free passes along with three hits in his pair of dominant starts last week. Patrick paced the Majors in innings pitched and strikeouts, and was one of two qualified NL pitchers to register two wins (also Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers).
On April 17th against the San Francisco Giants at Chase Field, Corbin tossed his first career complete-game shutout and fourth complete game. The left-hander allowed just two baserunners via one walk and hit, and needed just 100 pitches to complete his dominant one-hitter. Corbin's gem marked the first home shutout by a lefty hurler since Hall of Famer Randy Johnson's outing on September 14, 2003 against the Colorado Rockies. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Corbin, who held the Giants hitless through 7.2 innings, became just the fourth pitcher in Club history to open a game with 7.2-or-more hitless innings. Johnson (May 18, 2004 at Atlanta) and Edwin Jackson (June 25, 2010 at Tampa Bay) each recorded no-hitters in their outstanding starts, while Andy Benes took a no-hitter into ninth inning before yielding his first hit on September 13, 1998 at Cincinnati. In the second outing of his award-winning week on Sunday against the San Diego Padres, the New York native earned his fourth win of the season after tossing 6.0 innings of two-run ball with just two hits allowed and 11 strikeouts. With the victory in yesterday's contest, Patrick is 4-0 and off to his best start since beginning his 2013 All-Star campaign 9-0. In addition, Corbin is the only pitcher in the Majors this season to record at least eight strikeouts in each of his first five starts. His streak of five such games to begin a season is tied for third-longest in D-backs history with Curt Schilling (2001), and trails Johnson, who posted a streak of 15 games to begin the 2000 season and seven games to begin the 1999 campaign. The "Big Unit" earned the NL Cy Young Award in each season.
Puerto Rico native Javier Báez (.480, 7 R, 7 XBH, 9 RBI) was also impressive last week for the Chicago Cubs. On Friday night against the Rockies, the 25-year-old matched his career best with four hits, including a double, home run and four RBI. The 2016 NLCS Co-MVP became the first Cubs second baseman since at least 1913 to reach the six-homer mark before the end of April, besting the previous record of five round-trippers set by Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg (1996) and Rogers Hornsby (1931). In addition, his 20 RBI are the most by a second baseman in team history before the end of April. Other noteworthy performances last week included All-Star starting pitcher Johnny Cueto (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 13.0 IP, 18 SO) of the Giants; 2015 All-Star backstop Yasmani Grandal (.333, 5 R, 4 2B, 11 RBI) and the aforementioned Ryu (2-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 17 SO) of the Dodgers; two-time All-Star second baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera (.440, 4 R, 5 XBH, 7 RBI) of the New York Mets; and Christian Villanueva (.476, 6 R, 10 H, 5 RBI) of the Padres.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Patrick Corbin will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.