Oakland Athletics first baseman Yonder Alonso has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending May 7th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Alonso batted .409 (9-for-22) with five runs scored, a double, five home runs and 10 RBI over six games to claim his first career Player of the Week Award, and the first for the Athletics since teammate Khris Davis took home AL weekly honors last season on September 18th. Among AL leaders, Yonder finished the week first in home runs, RBI, total bases (25), extra-base hits (6) and slugging percentage (1.136), and sixth in batting average and on-base percentage (.480).
On Saturday night against the Detroit Tigers at the Oakland Coliseum, the Cuban native went 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs and three RBI. It was the first multi-homer game of his eight-year career. With his ninth home run of the 2017 campaign yesterday against Detroit, the University of Miami product matched his career high for round-trippers in a season, previously set in 2012 while a member of the San Diego Padres. Among qualified AL first basemen, Oakland's breakout slugger paces his peers in batting average (.311), on-base percentage (.386), slugging percentage (.667) and RBI (24), and is tied for the lead in home runs (9) with Marwin Gonzalez of the Houston Astros, entering play today. During his award-winning week, Alonso, who was the seventh overall selection (by Cincinnati) in the 2008 MLB Draft, logged multi-hit games in four of six contests, and homered in consecutive days on two separate occasions (May 2nd-3rd, May 6th-7th). Alonso had not previously accomplished the feat since June 29-30, 2016.
Jean Segura (.481, 13 H, 7 R, 5 RBI) of the Seattle Mariners enters play today having recorded multi-hit games in each of Seattle's last five contests, becoming the sixth player across Baseball to accomplish the feat this season. Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals and José Abreu of the Chicago White Sox have posted streaks of six multi-hit games to establish the season high across the Majors. Houston's Gonzalez (.500, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 1.313 SLG) also posted an impressive week. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the versatile utility player became the first player in MLB history (since 1901) to homer in four consecutive starts (April 27th-May 3rd), each coming from a different position (2B, 3B, LF, 1B). Other noteworthy performances included first baseman Eric Hosmer (.435, 4 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI) of the Kansas City Royals; left-hander Chris Sale (2-0, 3.86 ERA, 14.0 IP, 21 SO) of the Boston Red Sox; and outfielders Aaron Hicks (.417, 7 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI) and Brett Gardner (.423, 8 R, 3 HR, 22 TB) of the New York Yankees.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Yonder Alonso will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.