Monday, June 03, 2013

Dom Brown wins NL Player of the Week once more, and Player of the Month


The rewards just keep on coming for Dom Brown.

Brown earned his second consecutive Player of the Week honor after leading the Major Leagues with seven home runs, 13 RBI, 35 total bases and a 1.296 slugging percentage.

The 25-year-old Brown also ranked among N.L. leaders with eight runs scored (T-1st), 12 hits (3rd), a .444 (12-for-27) batting average (5th) and a .483 on-base percentage (7th) while adding a triple and a pair of stolen bases.

Brown hit homers in three consecutive games to start the week, clubbing solo shots in a 9-3 loss at Boston on Monday and a 3-1 win over the Sox on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the young slugger hit two blasts, helping the Phillies edge the Red Sox in the first game of their two-game series at Citizens Bank Park. On Friday, Brown tied a career-best with four RBI and posted his second multi-homer game of the week in a losing effort as the Phillies dropped an 8-5 decision to the visiting Milwaukee Brewers. In Sunday's series finale, the fourth-year veteran tied a career high with three hits and notched another four-RBI game, leading the way to a 7-5 victory.

The Florida native added an RBI triple in the second inning to collect his 40th RBI of the season and stake Philadelphia starter Cliff Lee an early 7-0 lead. This marks the second career weekly award for Brown following last week's honors. He becomes the first Phillies player in Club history to earn the award in consecutive weeks and the first to win twice in the same season since Chase Utley accomplished the feat (May 1-7, 2006 and July 24-30, 2006).

And not to be outdone, Brown was tabbed the top player in the Senior Circuit for the second full month of the 2013 season.

In 28 games last month, Brown led the National League with 12 home runs and 25 RBI, tying Miguel Cabrera for the Major League lead in homers while ranking fourth overall in RBI. The Florida native also led the Senior Circuit with 89 total bases which was good for third in the Majors.

Brown slugged .688 during the month of May, the second-highest mark in the N.L., while posting a .303 (33-for-109) batting average. The left-handed-hitting slugger became the first player in Major League history to hit at least 10 home runs in a calendar month without a walk. He is the first Phillie to eclipse 12 homers in a single month since Ryan Howard clubbed 14 in August 2006 en route to claiming the N.L. MVP award.

Brown capped his stellar May with his 12th multi-hit effort of the month in Friday's series-opener with the Milwaukee Brewers at Citizens Bank Park, going 2-for-4 with two homers and 4 RBI in an 8-5 loss. It was his second multi-homer performance in three days after clubbing a pair in Philadelphia's May 29th victory over Boston. In that outing, Brown's second homer of the day, a solo shot in the eighth inning, proved to be the difference in a 4-3 win. It was one of three game-winning RBI he had for the month. Brown homered, doubled and drove in two runs in the middle game of a three-game set in Washington on May 25th. In that contest, Philadelphia's 20th round pick in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft joined catcher Erik Kratz in clubbing back-to-back solo shots in the top of the second inning to give the Phillies an early 2-0 lead.

His RBI double in the eighth inning provided insurance to the Phillies bullpen as they shut the door on Washington for a 5-3 win. This is the first career monthly award for the 25-year-old, who is the first Phillies player to win Player of the Month honors since Ryan Howard was voted the winner for August of 2009.

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