Cincinnati Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 11th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Gennett batted .500 (10-for-20) with six runs scored, two doubles, four home runs, 13 RBI and a stolen base to earn his first career NL Player of the Week Award. On Tuesday, the 27-year-old recorded the first four-home run game in Reds franchise history, and became just the 17th player to reach the milestone in MLB history. Among NL leaders, Scooter finished the week first in total bases (24), RBI and slugging percentage (1.200); tied for first in batting average and home runs; tied for second in extra-base hits (6); tied for fifth in hits; and sixth in on-base percentage (.500). This is Cincinnati’s first weekly award since Todd Frazier took home weekly honors on May 31, 2015.
Gennett began his award-winning week in historic fashion on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, logging the first four-homer game in the Majors since Josh Hamilton accomplished the feat for the Texas Rangers on May 6, 2012 at Baltimore. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Cincinnati-born Gennett became the first player in MLB history to post five hits, four home runs and 10 RBI in a single game. Of the 17 players to blast four round-trippers in a single game, Gennett’s 10 RBI are second-most, trailing only Mark Whitten, who plated 12 runs during his historic night on September 7, 1993. In addition, Gennett and Whitten are the only players in history to include a grand slam in their four-homer contest. The left-handed-swinging infielder became the sixth player in history to homer in four consecutive plate appearances, joining Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Mike Schmidt, as well as Rocky Colavito, Mike Cameron and Carlos Delgado. The five-year veteran joined Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals as the only players this season to produce 10 RBI in a single contest. Only in June, the 2017 season is already the first since 1920 (when RBI became an official MLB statistic) in which more than one player has posted a 10-RBI game. Scooter enters play today in the midst of a five-game hitting streak after recording a hit in each game during his historic week, and has raised his batting average by 35 points from .270 to .305.