Cleveland Indians infielder José Ramírez has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending June 18th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Ramírez posted a slash line of .516/.545/1.065 with nine runs scored, eight doubles, three home runs, seven RBI and a stolen base over seven games to earn his first career AL Player of the Week Award, and the first for an Indians position player since his teammate Carlos Santana claimed weekly honors last season for the week ending September 25th. Among AL leaders, José finished the period first in hits (16), doubles, extra-base hits (11), total bases (33) and slugging percentage; third in batting average; tied for third in runs scored and on-base percentage; and sixth in home runs.
Ramírez enters play today in the midst of a six-game streak with multiple hits, matching the longest multi-hit stretch in the Majors this season (also: Colorado's Charlie Blackmon, Houston's George Springer, Seattle's Jean Segura, Washington's Ryan Zimmerman and José Abreu of the White Sox). During his impressive run, the 24-year-old has slashed .593/.621/1.222 with 11 extra-base hits, leading the Tribe to a 5-1 mark. Coinciding with his multi-hit streak is José's stretch of six consecutive games with a double, tied with Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals and Odubel Herrera of the Philadelphia Phillies for the second-longest streak in the Majors this season. Mitch Moreland's streak of seven straight games with a double from April 7th-13th for the Red Sox paces the Majors. The streak of six games is the most by an Indians player since Kenny Lofton recorded a double in six games from June 17-22, 1994. In the first game of Cleveland's doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday, the Bani, Dominican Republic native registered his second multi-homer game of the season (also April 15th) to go along with a double and four RBI. Led by José's hot week at the plate, Cleveland now owns a 36-31 (.537) record and leads the AL Central by 2.0 games.
José's teammate, designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion (.391, 10 R, 4 HR, 10 RBI), also posted a strong week for the Indians. Encarnacion, who is in his first season with the Indians, scored multiple runs in four-of-seven games, and also recorded his second multi-homer game of the season (also May 23rd) on Sunday afternoon. Starting pitcher Jacob Faria (2-0, 1.35 ERA, 13.1 IP, 17 SO) delivered two impressive starts for the Tampa Bay Rays. With his win yesterday against the Detroit Tigers, the 23-year-old joined Jeremy Hellickson (2010) as the only pitchers in franchise history to win his first three career games, all as a starter. In addition, Faria became the fifth pitcher since at least 1913 to toss at least 6.0 innings, allow one run-or-fewer and earn the victory in his first three career appearances. Other noteworthy performances included outfielder Lorenzo Cain (.458, 8 R, 4 HR, 6 RBI) of the Kansas City Royals; outfielder Trey Mancini (.448, 9 R, 7 XBH, 8 RBI) of the Baltimore Orioles; and outfielder Ben Gamel (.448, 11 R, 13 H, 3 2B) of the Seattle Mariners.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, José Ramírez will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.