Kansas City Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Major League Baseball announced today that Vinnie Pasquantino has been named American League Player of the Week, presented by Chevrolet, for the period of Aug. 18-24.
This is Pasquantino’s third career American League Player of the Week honor, following June 2-8 this season and Aug. 8-14, 2022. His three such awards are tied with Carlos Beltrán for the 6th most in Royals history, trailing only George Brett (12), Hal McRae (5), Billy Butler (5), Mike Sweeney (4) and Bret Saberhagen (4).
Pasquantino, 27, hit .379 (11-for-29) in 7 games last week and led the Major Leagues in home runs (6) while leading the American League in RBI (12) and ranking 2nd in the AL in slugging (1.069) and OPS (1.506).
He homered in 5 straight games last Monday through Friday to match a franchise record, previously done by Sweeney from June 25-29, 2002 and Salvador Perez from Aug. 25-29, 2021. It was the second 5-game HR streak in the Majors this season, following Shohei Ohtani, who did it from July 19-23.
Half of his 6 HR last week gave the Royals a lead, and his 15 go-ahead HR this season rank tied for 5th in the Majors. He has 26 go-ahead RBI on the season, tied with Cal Raleigh for the Major League lead.
He recorded an extra-base hit in all 7 games last week and enters tonight 1 shy of the franchise record held by Danny Tartabull, who had an extra-base hit in 8 straight games from June 25-July 3, 1991. Only two players in the Majors this season have longer extra-base-hit streaks, including Taylor Ward, who had an extra-base hit in 10 straight from May 14-24 and Ohtani, who did it in 8 straight games from Aug. 5-13.
In 129 games this season, Pasquantino leads the Royals with 28 HR and 92 RBI, and he leads the American League with 36 RBI in 33 games since the All-Star break.