Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending July 16th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Rendon posted a slash line of .636/.714/1.545 with four runs scored, a double, three home runs, nine RBI and three walks over a three-game series to claim his first career NL Player of the Week Award. Anthony paced the Majors in batting average, on-base percentage, home runs, RBI and total bases (17), and among NL hitters, finished the period first in slugging percentage, and tied for second in hits (7) and walks. This is Washington's third weekly award winner this season (Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman), joining the Los Angeles Dodgers as the only teams in the Majors with three different winners.
In Saturday's away tilt against the Cincinnati Reds, the 2016 NL Comeback Player of the Year went 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs, six RBI, two walks and two runs scored, logging his third multi-homer game of the season (also: April 30th and May 23rd). Coupled with his three-homer and 10-RBI output in his historic game on April 30th, Rendon is the only player in the Majors this season with more than one six-RBI game. In addition, the 27-year-old joined Josh Willingham (2009) and Danny Espinosa (2016) as the only players in Nationals history to post multiple games in one season with at least six RBI. Rendon, who was drafted by Washington with the sixth overall selection in the 2011 MLB Draft, followed up his prolific performance with another multi-hit game on Sunday, including his 19th round-tripper of the season. Rendon enters play today in the midst of a 10-game hitting streak dating back to July 1st. During his torrid stretch, the Rice University product has slashed .472/.568/.861 with seven runs scored, 17 hits, five doubles, three home runs and 13 RBI, while leading the Nats to a 7-3 record.
Newly acquired starting pitcher José Quintana was dominant in his first start for the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. The 2016 AL All-Star tossed 7.0 shutout innings with 12 strikeouts, zero walks and just three hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, having already posted a pair of double-digit strikeout efforts for the Chicago White Sox, Quintana joined Hall of Famer Randy Johnson (1998) as the only pitchers since 1900 to log more than 10 strikeouts for two different teams within the same season. Other noteworthy performances last week included José's new battery-mate Willson Contreras (.571, 8 H, 3 2B, 4 RBI); second baseman Brandon Phillips (.583, 6 XBH, 4 RBI, .615 OBP) of the Atlanta Braves; outfielder Odúbel Herrera (.417, 3 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI) of the Philadelphia Phillies; and Rendon's teammates, starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8.1 IP, 6 SO) and second baseman Daniel Murphy (.625, 4 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI).
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Anthony Rendon will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.