Josh Hamilton and Colby Lewis Named A.L. Co-Players of the Week
June 14, 2010 – Major League Baseball announced today that Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton and right-handed pitcher Colby Lewis have been named the American League co-Players of the Week. It is the first time a pair of Texas players have ever shared the weekly award, which began in 1974. Lewis is the first Rangers pitcher to receive the honor since Kenny Rogers on July 31, 1994.
Hamilton batted .370 (10-27) with 4 home runs, 2 doubles, 7 runs scored, and 13 RBI as the Rangers went 5-2 last week. His 13 RBI led the majors, while the 4 homers ranked tied for 2nd among all players for the week. Hamilton has a current 10-game hit streak and has homered in 4 of his last 5 contests. For the season, he ranks among American League leaders in total bases (T3rd, 140), extra-base hits (T3rd, 34), home runs (T4th, 15), RBI (T5th, 46), and slugging (7th, .576).
Lewis went 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA (3 ER/15.0 IP) in his 2 starts last week, winning matchups with Felix Hernandez and Yovani Gallardo. Opposing batters hit just .132 with 4 walks and 15 strikeouts. Lewis posted his 4th 10-strikeout game of the season yesterday at Milwaukee, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI at the plate. He is the first Texas pitcher with 4 games of 10-or-more strikeouts in a season since Nolan Ryan (4) in 1991. He became the first pitcher in Rangers history with multiple hits and RBI in a game with his effort yesterday.
Lewis has held opponents to a .197 average this season, lowest in the American League and 3rd-lowest in the majors behind Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez (.180) and San Francisco’s Jonathan Sanchez (.195). He also ranks 7th in the A.L. with 81 strikeouts in 2010.
This is the first time either Hamilton or Lewis have ever won a Player of the Week award. The last time a pitcher and player from one team shared the award was July 7, 2002 by Boston teammates Pedro Martinez and Trot Nixon. The last time any Major League team had a pitcher and player shared the weekly honor was August 20, 2006 when Cardinals teammates Chris Carpenter and Chris Duncan captured the award. The only other time this season for a Texas player to win the weekly award was Nelson Cruz for week of May 17-23.
ALL STAR UPDATE: Major League Baseball released the latest American League All-Star balloting update today. Vladimir Guerrero (1,743,946 votes) still leads all players in the designated hitter category, more than double the vote total of Hideki Matsui (825,752 votes)to this point, a difference of 918,194. in one of the tightest positional races, Nelson Cruz (1,093,099) ranks 3rd among A.L. outfielders, slightly behind 2nd place Carl Crawford (1,123,132) and just 86,735 votes more than 4th place Josh Hamilton (1,006,364). Elvis Andrus ranks 2nd among shortstops, well behind Derek Jeter, while Michael Young (3B) and Ian Kinsler (2B) rank 3rd at their respective positions. on-line voting continues at texasrangers.com through July 1.
Updated 06-15-2010
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