Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was named National League Player of the Week for the week ending April 12th.
The veteran slugger, who led baseball with 116 RBI in 2014, opened the 2015 campaign on a torrid pace, leading the Majors with five home runs, 14 hits, 32 total bases and a .609 batting average (14-for-23) in six games. Gonzalez also posted the top slugging (1.391) and on-base percentages (.667) in the Majors and led the NL with eight runs scored, while tying for fourth among National Leaguers with seven RBI.
The four-time All-Star homered on Opening Day and on April 7 against the San Diego Padres before going deep three times on April 8 against his former club, becoming the only player in Major League history to hit five home runs through his team’s first three contests of a season (courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau).
In doing so, Gonzalez became just the third Dodger since 1914 to open the season with at least one home run in each of the club’s first three games, joining Jim Wynn (1974) and Carl Furillo (1955).
He went a combined 10-for-13 off Padres pitchers during the three-game set at Dodger Stadium, leading Los Angeles to two victories. Gonzalez collected at least one hit in all six of his games last week and had multi-hit performances in four of them.
This is his eighth career Player of the Week Award and first as a Dodger. His last weekly honor came Aug. 6-12, 2012, as a member of the Boston Red Sox, and his last NL award was for the week of May 17-23, 2010, with San Diego.