Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending July 23rd. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Arenado posted a slash line of .458/.480/1.000 with nine runs scored, a double, four home runs and 13 RBI over five games to claim his fourth career NL Player of the Week Award, and first since April 18th of last season. Among his NL counterparts, Nolan finished his strong week first in RBI; tied for first in home runs; second in runs scored; tied for third in total bases (24) and slugging percentage; tied for fifth in hits (11); and tied for eighth in on-base percentage (.480). This is Colorado's second Player of the Week Award this season, following Nolan's fellow All-Star teammate Charlie Blackmon, who took home weekly honors for the period ending May 28th.
In Wednesday night's home tilt against the San Diego Padres at Coors Field, Arenado went 5-for-6 with four runs scored, three home runs and seven RBI. The three-time NL All-Star established new career bests in home runs and hits, while matching his career highs in RBI (also April 13, 2016 vs. San Francisco) and runs scored (also June 5, 2016 at San Diego). The three-time All-Star became the 12thplayer in Rockies history (16th time) to blast three homers in a game, and the first since Blackmon accomplished the feat on August 12th of last season at Philadelphia. In addition, the Newport Beach, California native became the first player in franchise history to record five hits and three home runs in a single game. Arenado, who homered in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, became the second player in club history to homer in three consecutive innings (also Andres Galarraga on June 25, 1995 vs. San Diego), and the first active Major Leaguer since Baltimore's Manny Machado last season on August 7th. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that, coupled with his cycle on June 18th, the 26-year-old is the fourth player in the past 25 years to record a three-homer game and hit for the cycle in a single season, joining Miguel Tejada (2001), José Reyes (2006) and Adrian Beltre (2012). Arenado, who participated in the 2017 World Baseball Classic for Team USA, followed up his historic game with three consecutive multi-hit efforts (July 21st-23rd) to conclude his award-winning week. Since the 2017 Midsummer Classic in Miami, the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner is slashing .444/.459/.944 with 11 runs scored, 16 hits, three doubles, five home runs and 16 RBI.
Blackmon (.500, 12 R, 6 XBH, 5 RBI) was also impressive for Colorado this past week. With his 14-game hitting streak coming to an end on Friday, Colorado's electric outfielder is the only player in the Majors this season to post three different hitting streaks of 10-or-more games. Other noteworthy performances last week included starting pitcher Jon Lester (2-0, 1.80 ERA, 15.0 IP, 16 SO) of the Chicago Cubs; outfielder Michael Conforto (.429, 3 2B, 4 HR, 7 RBI) of the New York Mets; and infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor (.542, 6 R, 6 XBH, 9 RBI) of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Nolan Arenado will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.