Victor Martinez Named American League Player of the Week
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending May 1st. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Martinez batted .519 (14-for-27) with eight runs scored, five doubles, three home runs and eight RBI over seven games to claim his fifth career AL Player of the Week Award, most recently with the Tigers on May 15, 2011. Victor paced the Majors in total bases (28), runs scored, slugging percentage (1.037) and extra-base hits (8), and finished tied for first in on-base percentage (.567) and doubles. Among AL leaders, the switch-hitting slugger finished first in batting average and hits, and tied for first in home runs.
In a home tilt on Wednesday night against the Oakland Athletics, the Venezuelan native went 1-for-2 with a run scored, a home run and three RBI in a 9-4 victory. Coupled with J.D. Martinez's three-run homer, the bashing duo each delivered a roundtripper in the same game for the 11th time in their three seasons as teammates, while it was the first time that both J.D. and Victor each homered with more than one runner on base in the same game. On Friday night against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Martinez went 4-for-5 with three runs scored, a double, one home run and two RBI to propel the Tigers to a 9-2 victory. The four-hit performance was the 16th of his storied career and first since July 6, 2015 at Seattle. To close out the week on Sunday, the five-time
AL All-Star went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a double. In his previous eight games, dating back to April 24th, the 2014 Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award recipient recorded six multi-hit games to the tune of a .516 (16-for-31) batting average.
Earlier this season on April 20th, the 14-year-veteran recorded the 1000th RBI of his Major League career, becoming just the fifth Venezuelan-born player to reach the coveted milestone (also Miguel Cabrera, Andres Galarraga, Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordonez).
Fueled by V-Mart's exceptional week, the Tigers went 6-1 and improved their overall record to 14-10, good for second in the AL Central. Entering play today, Detroit's powerful offense sits second among AL teams in runs scored (115) and RBI (110), and is third in batting average (.269), on-base percentage (.323) and slugging percentage (.433).
Other noteworthy performances last week included Victor's teammates Miguel Cabrera (.387, 12 H, 3 HR, 24 TB), Nick Castellanos (.440, 8 RBI, 21 TB, .840 SLG) and Jordan Zimmermann (2-0, 1.32 ERA, 13.2 IP, 8 SO); Jackie Bradley, Jr. (.375, 5 R, 3 3B, 7 RBI) and Rick Porcello (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 13.1 IP, 12 SO) of the Boston Red Sox; and Chris Sale (1-0, 1.35 ERA, 13.1 IP, 12 SO) of the Chicago White Sox.
In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Victor Martinez will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game
Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.