Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre and Seattle Mariners starting pitcher James Paxton have been named the American League Co-Players of the Week for the period ending July 30th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Beltre hit .478 (11-for-23) with five runs scored, three doubles, a home run and five RBI over six games played to claim his sixth career Player of the Week Award, last winning on October 4, 2015. With his double in the fourth inning against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday at Globe Life Park, Adrian became the 31st player in MLB history, and the first Dominican-born player, to reach the 3,000-hit milestone. The 20-year-veteran began his award-winning week in historic fashion, tallying a season-best four hits last Monday for the 36th time in his storied career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the four-time All-Star became just the third player since 1900 to surpass the 2,990-hit mark in a game in which he registered four-or-more hits, joining Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson (2001) and Alex Rodriguez (2015). In addition to joining the exclusive 3,000-hit club, the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native became the fourth player in Baseball history to record at least 3,000 hits, 600 doubles and 450 home runs, joining Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Carl Yastrzemski. The 38-year-old slugger joined Hall of Famers George Brett and Wade Boggs as the only 3,000-hit club members to accomplish the feat while playing a majority of their games at the third base position.
Paxton went 2-0 without allowing a run over 13.0 innings of work to earn his second career AL Player of the Week Award, following his first honor earlier this season for the period ending April 16th. James struck out 18 batters without issuing a walk and permitted 10 hits in two dominant outings last week. Among qualified AL hurlers, Paxton finished the period tied for first in ERA and wins, second in strikeouts and tied for third in innings pitched. The left-hander is the first AL pitcher to earn multiple weekly awards in the same season since Justin Verlander claimed three weekly honors during his MVP and Cy Young Award-winning 2011 season. With his second start of the week on Sunday afternoon against the New York Mets, Paxton earned his sixth consecutive win and became the first hurler in franchise history to tally six victories in a calendar month. During his excellent month of July, Paxton registered a 1.37 ERA and 46:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 39.1 innings of work to go along with his six victories. With 11 wins on the season, the 28-year-old is the first Mariners left-hander with 10 wins in a single season since his teammate Roenis Elias in 2014.
Other noteworthy performances last week included starting pitcher Kevin Gausman (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 14.2 IP, 16 SO) of the Baltimore Orioles; first baseman Carlos Santana (.346, 9 R, 4 HR, .808 SLG) and outfielder Bradley Zimmer (.417, 6 R, 5 XBH, 8 RBI) of the Cleveland Indians; second baseman Jose Altuve (.500, 6 R, 12 H, 5 2B) of the Houston Astros; and closer Kelvin Herrera (4 SV, 0.00 ERA, 3 SO) of the Kansas City Royals.
In recognition of their American League Co-Players of the Week Awards, both Adrian Beltre and James Paxton will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.