HOUSTON, TX - Major League Baseball announced today that Houston Astros RHP Justin Verlander has been named the American League Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 26-Sept. 1. This marks the ninth career AL Player of the Week award for Verlander and first this season. His last came in Sept. of 2018.
Verlander made history on Sunday afternoon in Toronto, hurling his third career no-hitter, tallying 14 strikeouts and just one walk in a dominant, 2-0 victory. In the process, Verlander became just the sixth pitcher in ML history to hurl three no-hitters, joining Nolan Ryan (7), Sandy Koufax (4), Bob Feller (3), Cy Young (3) and Larry Corcoran (3). Verlander also made history by becoming the first pitcher ever to hurl multiple no-hitters in the same road ballpark. He also no-hit the Blue Jays in Toronto on May 7, 2011 while with Detroit. For the week, Verlander was 2-0 in his two starts with a 0.00 ERA (0ER/14.1IP) with 18 strikeouts and one walk while allowing just four hits (.085 opponents average).
Major League Baseball also announced today that Astros OF Yordan Alvarez has been named AL Rookie of the Month and Astros IF Alex Bregman has been named AL Player of the Month. Both were recognized for the month of August.
For Alvarez, this marks the third consecutive month that he has won AL Rookie of the Month honors, becoming the first player in franchise history with this distinction and the first player from any club since Aaron Judge won the award in three straight months in 2017 (April, May, June). For Bregman, this marks his second career Player of the Month Award, with his other coming for June of 2018. Bregman is the second Astros Player of the Month winner in 2019, as Yuli Gurriel won the award for July. The Astros have now captured seven MLB monthly awards overall this season. RHP Gerrit Cole won the AL Pitcher of the Month Award for both June and July.
Alvarez, who is a solid candidate for AL Rookie of the Year honors, hit .309 in 27 games in August while leading AL rookies in HR (9), RBI (26), slugging pct. (.670), on-base-pct. (.425) and OPS (1.095). For the season, Alvarez is hitting .317 in 66 games while leading AL rookies in HR (22, T-1st), RBI (63), slugging (.671), on-base-pct. (.413) and OPS (1.084), using a minimum of 275 plate appearances. Since making his ML debut on June 9, he ranks third in the AL in OPS, fouth in RBI and tied for fourth in HR. On Monday at Milwaukee, Alvarez hit his 22nd HR of the season, which ties the franchise record for HR in a season by a rookie (set by Carlos Correa in 2015).
In his 26 games in August, Bregman led all AL hitters in batting avg. (.404), RBI (31) and on-base-pct. (.487), while ranking tied for first in doubles (14) and third in OPS (1.235). He also set club records for the month in doubles, batting average and OBP (min. 100 PA) and fell three RBI shy of the August club record of 34 set by Jeff Bagwell in 2000. Bregman’s outstanding month of August has made him a candidate for AL MVP honors for the season. Since August 1, Bregman has raised his batting average from .259 to .295 and his OPS from .909 to .985. For the season, Bregman now ranks third in the AL in OPS, second in OBP (.416), seventh in RBI (95) and slugging pct. (.570) and tied for seventh in HR (32).