Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin named MLB Players of the Week

Press Release Major League Baseball

Oakland Athletics third baseman Josh Donaldson has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending April 28th. The announcement was made earlier today on the MLB Network.

Donaldson batted .545 (12-for-22) with seven doubles, 10 RBI, seven walks, four runs scored and a stolen base over seven games to notch his first career weekly honor. Among Major League hitters, Donaldson led the way in doubles and on-base percentage (.633), was tied for first in batting average, RBI and walks, and was tied for second in hits. The 27-year-old was fourth in the A.L. in slugging percentage (.864) and was tied for fourth in the league in total bases (19).

Donaldson helped the A’s jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning of Monday’s contest against the Boston Red Sox with a double and a run scored, and later roped his second two-bagger of the game to plate a pair of runs in the eighth, but his offensive efforts were not enough as the Sox topped Oakland, 9-6, at Fenway Park. It marked the second time in his three-year career that the right-handed-hitting Donaldson doubled twice in the same game, previously doing so on May 18th of last season in San Francisco. On Tuesday, the Auburn University product went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored as the Athletics cruised to 13-0 victory over the Red Sox in a rain-shortened 7.0- inning affair. The win was Oakland’s first shutout of the season and it marked their largest shutout victory over Boston since the then- Philadelphia Athletics won by a 15-0 margin on September 2, 1932. Additionally, it was the first shutout of fewer than nine innings for the A’s since April 9, 1971, when Vida Blue blanked the Kansas ity Royals, 5-0, after the game was called following the top of the sixth inning. Back in Oakland over the weekend, Donaldson notched a career-high-tying four hits, including a pair of doubles and two RBI, in a 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday at O.co Coliseum. Rounding out the week, Donaldson walked twice and had a two-run double to help Oakland defeat the O’s, 9-8, in 10 innings on Sunday. The 48th overall pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft boosted his season batting average to .319, up 73 points from the beginning of the week. Heading into play today, Josh is tied for second in the A.L. with 10 doubles and is ninth in the Junior Circuit in RBI.

Other noteworthy performances included slugger Edwin Encarnacion (.308, 5 HR, 8 RBI, 8 R) of the Toronto Blue Jays; designated hitter David Ortiz (.478, 4 2B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 7 R) of the Boston Red Sox; Detroit’s Anibal Sanchez (1-0, 8.0 IP, 0 R, 17 SO vs. Atlanta on April 26th, setting a new franchise and regular-season Interleague game strikeout record); Seattle’s Felix Hernandez (2-0, 14.0 IP, 0.64 ERA, 16 SO, 100th career victory on April 22nd vs. Houston); Matt Moore (2-0, 14.0 IP, 1.29 ERA, 18 SO) of the Tampa Bay Rays; Donaldson’s Oakland teammate Bartolo Colon (1-0, 2 GS, 1 SHO, 3.46 ERA, 10 SO); Minnesota’s Kevin Correia (2-0, 1.20 ERA, 15.0 IP, 7 SO); and Mariano Rivera (4 SV, 5 SO) of the New York Yankees.

Catcher Russell Martin of the Pittsburgh Pirates has been named National League Player of the Week for the period ending April 28th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.

In six games last week, Martin hit .375 (9-for-24) while leading the National League with four home runs, a .958 slugging percentage and 23 total bases. The Canadian-born backstop also ranked among league leaders in hits, runs-scored (5) and RBI (6) last week while helping the NL Central-leading Pirates to a 5-2 record. On Sunday, Martin’s three-hit effort included two homers and a double, marking just the second time in the last 50 years that a Bucs catcher has recorded three extra-base hits with at least two home runs in a single game (Ryan Doumit accomplished the feat on June 10, 2008 vs. Washington). The multi-homer effort was the seventh of Martin’s Major League career (first since May 10, 2012) and left him just two shy of his 100th career four-bagger.

The offensive contribution helped power the Bucs to a 9-0 victory in the rubber-match of a three-game set at St. Louis. The 30-year-old slugger also played a key role in Saturday’s showdown between the two clubs. Down 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning, Martin crushed the first pitch he saw to tie the game at 2-2. The clutch hit ignited a four-run inning for the Bucs on the way to an eventual 5-3 win over their division rivals. Martin, who is in his first season with the Pirates after signing as a free agent in the offseason, currently ranks second among N.L. catchers with 12 runs scored, and his five homers rank fourth. This is his first career weekly honor.

Other noteworthy performances last week included Martin’s Pittsburgh teammates Pedro Alvarez (.360, 2 HR, 6 RBI, .600 SLG) and Jeff Locke (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 10 SO, 13.0 IP); Colorado’s Dexter Fowler (.393, 11 H, 2 2B, 4 R, .500 OBP) and Eric Young, Jr. (.391, 9 H, 4 2B, .652 SLG); Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez (.450, 5 R, 3 2B, HR, .542 OBP); Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard (.308, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .654 SLG), Michael Young (.409, 4 R, 9 H, .500 OBP) and Kyle Kendrick (1-0, 0.00 ERA, CG, SHO, 5 SO); Arizona’s Gerardo Parra (.417, 10 H, 6 R, .500 OBP); Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton (.364, 3 HR, 8 RBI, .818 SLG, .462 OBP); Cincinnati’s Tony Cingrani (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 20 SO); Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 17 SO) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; and Washington’s Jordan Zimmermann (1-0, 0.00 ERA, CG, SHO).