Sports

Actions

Virginia Beach’s Mark Reynolds named National League Player of the Week

Posted at 2:51 PM, Jul 09, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-09 16:52:36-04

Mark Reynolds hits the game winning home run. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – Thanks, in part, to a one-game statistical performance some players hope to achieve in a week – Mark Reynolds has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period of July 2 – July 8.

Reynolds, the Virginia Beach native (First Colonial High School), started just four games last week – but he recorded 10 hits in 16 at bats. In addition to his career-high 10 runs batted in Saturday vs. Miami, Reynolds also hit two home runs in the game. For the week, he drove in 12 runs, clubbed three homers and hit for a .625 batting average.

Among his NL counterparts with a minimum of 16 at-bats, Mark finished the week first in batting average, on-base percentage (.684), slugging percentage (1.313) and RBI; tied for second in home runs, extra-base hits (5) and total bases (21); and tied for fifth in hits. Reynolds also made his Major League pitching debut on Sunday, retiring his only batter faced via ground out. This is Washington’s third weekly award of the 2018 season, following his teammates, 2018 All-Star Max Scherzer (April 15th) and outfielder Adam Eaton (April 1st).

Mark Reynolds. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

In Saturday’s 18-4 victory over the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park, the 34-year-old veteran became just the third Major Leaguer since at least 1908 to reach those totals in a single contest, joining his teammate Anthony Rendon (April 30, 2017) and Hall of Famer Jim Bottomley (September 16, 1924). Overall, Reynolds became the 15th player in Major League history to reach the 10-RBI mark in a game. Coupled with his teammate Trea Turner’s eight-RBI effort on Thursday, the duo became the second pair of teammates in NL history to each record at least eight RBI in games during a span of three days, joining Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda of the 1961 San Francisco Giants. Following a multi-hit effort in his final game of the week on Sunday, the University of Virginia product enters play today with a .300 (33-for-110) batting average on the season to go along with 19 runs scored, 10 home runs and 24 RBI.

It’s Reynolds’ first Player of the Week honor since April 2010.