Washington Nationals All-Star outfielder Bryce Harper has been named the National League Player of the Week presented by W.B. Mason for the period ending September 9th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Harper posted a slash line of .438/.655/.938 with six runs scored, seven hits, two doubles, a pair of home runs, seven RBI, a Major League-best 12 walks and a stolen base over six games played to claim his sixth career NL Player of the Week Award, last winning for the period ending April 23, 2017. Among his NL counterparts, Bryce finished the week first in on-base percentage and walks; second in slugging percentage; tied for third in batting average; tied for fourth in RBI; tied for sixth in runs scored; tied for seventh in extra-base hits (4); and tied for eighth in doubles. This is Washington's fifth Player of the Week award this season, following his teammates Adam Eaton (April 1st), All-Star Max Scherzer (April 15th), Mark Reynolds (July 8th) and Ryan Zimmerman (August 12th).
Harper began his award-winning week on September 3rd by batting 1-for-2 with a home run, three RBI and three walks to lead Washington to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Having also reached those totals earlier this season on April 2nd and June 29th, the first overall selection of the 2010 MLB Draft became just the third player in MLB history to post three such games in a single season, joining Hall of Famers Ted Williams (1946) and Lou Gehrig (1927). In the following game on Tuesday, the 2018 T-Mobile Home Run Derby winner collected his 27th double of the season to go along with two RBI and three free passes. The Las Vegas native became the sixth player in Nationals/Expos history to log three or more walks in consecutive games, joining Adam Dunn (2009), Cliff Floyd (1996), Warren Cromartie (1981), Mike Jorgensen (1974) and Ken Singleton (1973). In the final game of his excellent week, Harper clubbed a game-winning two-run round-tripper in the bottom of the seventh inning to propel the Nationals to a 6-5 win over the National League-leading Chicago Cubs. With the homer, the six-time All-Star enters play today with 92 runs scored, 28 doubles, 32 home runs, 91 RBI and 110 walks on the season.
Outfielder Marcell Ozuna (.385, 6 R, 5 HR, 6 RBI) of the Cardinals also posted a strong week at the plate. The Dominican Republic native posted a pair of multi-homer games on Tuesday and Friday, and notched a season-best four hits on Wednesday. Other noteworthy performances last week included Scherzer (1-0, 1 CG, 16.0 IP, 22 SO); All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (.364, 6 R, 5 XBH, 6 BB) and starting pitcher Robbie Ray (1-0, 1.46 ERA, 12.1 IP, 16 SO) of the Arizona Diamondbacks; and second baseman DJ LeMahieu (.417, 5 R, 5 XBH, 4 RBI) and shortstop Trevor Story (5 R, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 3 SB) of the Colorado Rockies.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Bryce Harper will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.