Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending June 25th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Kluber went 1-0 without allowing a run over 16.0 innings to earn his third career AL Player of the Week Award, last winning on September 22, 2014. Corey struck out 24 batters, and issued just two free passes and six hits in two dominant starts last week. Among qualified AL hurlers, Kluber finished first in innings pitched and strikeouts, and tied for first in ERA. Additionally, the 31-year-old delivered his second complete-game shutout of the 2017 season last Monday against the Baltimore Orioles (also April 21st). This is Cleveland's second consecutive weekly award, following Corey's teammate, third baseman José Ramírez.
In his first start against the Orioles, Kluber logged the 12th complete game and fifth complete-game shutout of his career, retiring 27-of-30 batters faced. The 2016 AL All-Star became one of four players in franchise history since 1913 to log a shutout with fewer than three hits, zero walks and 11-or-more strikeouts, joining Stan Williams (1968), Len Barker (1981) and teammate Josh Tomlin (2014). Since registering his first complete game during his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2014, Kluber's 12 complete games trail only Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the most in the Majors during that span (13). In his second start during his outstanding week on Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins, the Birmingham, Alabama native tallied 13 punchouts, while surrendering just three hits, two walks and two unearned runs. The 13-strikeout effort was his third consecutive start with at least 10-strikeouts, matching the longest streak of his career (also September 16-26, 2014), and trails the franchise record of four consecutive starts set by Hall of Famer Bob Feller (September 23, 1938-April 21, 1939). In five starts since being reinstated from the disabled list on June 1st, Cleveland's ace has gone 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 52 strikeouts over 35.0 innings of work.
Outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall (.417/.458/.500) and Ramírez (.393, 6 R, 6 XBH) supported their ace last week with impressive performances. Cleveland's offense scored 12 runs during Kluber's shutout last Monday, the most runs by any team in the Majors in a shutout this season. Ramírez logged a nine-game multi-hit streak from June 14th-21st, leading the Tribe to a 7-2 record. During his torrid stretch, José slashed .548/.578/1.048 with 12 runs scored, 10 doubles, a triple, three home runs and seven RBI. Other noteworthy performances last week included outfielder Josh Reddick (.500, 8 R, 6 XBH) of the Houston Astros; outfielder Carlos Gomez (7 R, 4 HR, 8 RBI) of the Texas Rangers; outfielder Ben Gamel (.346, 6 R, 4 XBH) of the Seattle Mariners; and starting pitcher Daniel Gossett (1-1, 1.42 ERA, 11 SO, 12.2 IP) of the Oakland Athletics.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Corey Kluber will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.