Third baseman Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals has been named National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 5th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Carpenter was Baseball's top hitter last week, collecting a Major League-best 14 hits, and posting a .560 batting average (14-for-25) in six games. He also led the Majors with a .577 on-base percentage and 10 runs scored, while ranking among NL leaders in slugging (5th, .920) and total bases (6th, 23). The two-time NL All-Star collected three RBI on the week, and clubbed five doubles and a pair of triples.
On Sunday, Carpenter notched his fourth multi-hit performance of the week with a three-hit effort in the rubber-match of a three-game series at Busch Stadium against the San Francisco Giants. His RBI-single in the third inning gave the Cards a 1-0 lead in an eventual 6-3 victory over the NL West's top team. Carpenter had a season-high four hits on both Monday, May 30th and Tuesday, May 31st at Milwaukee. In Tuesday's contest, the Cardinals' leadoff hitter went 4-for-5 with four runs scored, a pair of triples, and two RBI in a 10-3 win over the Brewers. On Monday, his four singles and three runs scored led the way to a 6-0 win for the Redbirds. Carpenter's 34 RBI from the leadoff spot are the most in the NL this season. He is currently tied for third among all National Leaguers with 39 runs scored. This is his second career weekly award, having won previously for the week of April 13-19, 2015.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Cincinnati's Adam Duvall (.258, 10 R, 5 HR, 9 RBI, .774 SLG); Colorado's Carlos Gonzalez (.391, 6 R, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 1.130 SLG, .500 OBP); Corey Seager (.370, 10 H, 6 HR, 11 RBI, 1.037 SLG, .400 OBP) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Miami's José Fernández (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 14.0 IP, 20 SO); and Pittsburgh's Jeff Locke (2-0, 1.69 ERA, CG, SHO, 3 SO, 16.0 IP).
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Matt Carpenter will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.