Werth takes home NL Player of the Month honors

Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth was named the National League Player of the Month for July on Monday after driving in a league-best 22 runs.

Werth started the month off on the right foot with a season-best five-RBI performance on July 1, when he went 2-for-5 with a double as the Nationals beat the Brewers. He finished the month with an NL-best .450 on-base percentage, to go along with seven homers.

He also ranked among the league leaders with a .367 batting average (second), a .622 slugging percentage (fourth), 56 total bases (fifth) and 17 runs scored (tied for ninth).

It is Werth's first career Player of the Month award, and the first ever for the Nationals (since 2005). The last player in franchise history to receive the honor was Vladimir Guerrero, who did it while with the Expos in 2003.

Werth had 10 multihit games over the course of the month, and on July 10 hit his 10th homer of the season to double his season total of five from a year ago.

He then belted a pair of homers in back-to-back games July 21-22 and has now hit 11 homers since returning to action on June 4 from a stint on the disabled list (right hamstring).