Giolito, Story named Players of Week

Major League Baseball selected White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito and Rockies shortstop Trevor Story on Monday as the American and National League Players of the Week presented by W.B. Mason.

Giolito, 24, won both of his starts for Chicago while permitting just three earned runs over 15 1/3 innings. The righty struck out 19 batters and walked just one while defeating the Royals and Indians. The outings capped off a banner stretch for Giolito, who also captured the AL’s Pitcher of the Month Award for May after going 5-0 with a 1.74 ERA over six starts. Giolito’s performance is all the more remarkable considering he owned a 5.30 ERA after his first four starts of 2019, and he recorded the Majors’ worst ERA (6.13) among qualified starters last season. But baseball’s former No. 1 pitching prospect has been stifling over the past four and a half weeks, holding opponents to a .173 average and a .459 OPS.

Story, 26, has gone 11-for-21 (.524) with three doubles, a triple and two homers while driving in seven runs over his past six games. The shortstop recorded a career-high seven RBIs while homering twice and also doubling and drawing a walk in the Rockies’ 13-6 win over the Blue Jays on Friday. He had at least three hits and one extra-base hit in three straight contests for Colorado from Friday through Sunday. The Rockies are riding an MLB-best eight-game winning streak thanks in large part to Story, who leads the NL with 53 runs scored while also tying for fifth in the league with 68 hits and tying for sixth with 129 total bases.

This is Story’s fourth NL Player of the Week Award, following his first two honors in 2016 and another in July of last year. It is the first such honor of Giolito’s career.