Ohtani, Alonso named Players of the Week

Last week, Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani made (more) history while Mets slugger Pete Alonso put his awesome power on full display. That’s why on Monday they were named the Players of the Week presented by Chevrolet in the American and National League, respectively.

Meanwhile, Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman garnered Play of the Week honors for his game-sealing home run robbery vs. the Cardinals.

Ohtani all but locked up his award on Thursday, when he had one of the most amazing performances we have ever witnessed in a doubleheader against Detroit. He pitched a one-hit shutout in Game 1, then came back a short time later to blast two home runs in Game 2. The tireless two-way phenom crushed his Major League-leading 39th home run a day later in Toronto.

Ohtani produced an .800 slugging percentage over six games last week and he reached base in 11 of his final 17 plate appearances. This is his third Player of the Week honor this year and the seventh of his career.

But no player bopped more homers last week than Alonso, who went deep twice in Tuesday's victory over the Yankees and did so again in Friday's win against the Nationals. He has three multihomer games this season and 17 since he debuted in 2019. Only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (24) has more such games during that span.

Alonso also drove in a season-high five runs in each of those games. It all added up to a .304/.370/.826 slash line with an MLB-best 12 RBIs over his six-game week. A three-time Player of the Week winner, Alonso is the first Met to receive this award in 2023.

Tauchman provided arguably the most thrilling moment of the Cubs’ recent eight-game winning streak when he reached over the center-field fence to rob the Cardinals’ Alec Burleson of what would have been a game-winning homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“It’s kind of like you have that internal clock or feeling of, ‘I've kind of got to go up now,’” Tauchman said of his thought process on the play. “And it kind of just coincided with the ball coming down. I didn't know, I guess, that I was right at the wall until I kind of turned to catch the ball.”