Veteran superstars earn Player of Week honors
Verlander, 36, Molina, 37, turn back the clock with huge weeks
Justin Verlander didn¡¯t give up a hit in a historic start, while Yadier Molina couldn¡¯t stop racking up base knocks of his own, and both were recognized by Major League Baseball as the Players of the Week presented by W.B. Mason on Tuesday.
For Verlander, the selection comes after the 36-year-old American League Cy Young candidate made history with his no-hitter of Toronto on Sunday. He's just the sixth hurler in Major League history to toss three no-no¡¯s, joining the ranks of Hall of Famers like Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan, among others.
All told, Verlander¡¯s week consisted of 14 1/3 scoreless innings and 18 strikeouts after he took his first of two of wins during the week against Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
Luckily for Verlander, he didn¡¯t run into Molina last week. The Cardinals' 37-year-old catcher put together five multihit performances in as many starts, hitting .579/.636/.1.368 in that span with four homers, three doubles and eight RBIs.
For Molina, that means half of his total homers on the year have came in the last week alone, jumping his OPS 79 points in the process to .723 on the year.