Brad Miller of the Seattle Mariners named American League Player of the Week

Seattle Mariners shortstop Brad Miller has been named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending May 17th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.

Miller batted .429 (9-for-21) with four home runs, three doubles, six runs scored and five RBI over six games to claim his second career AL weekly honor, joining his award-winning week concluding July 20, 2013. Brad paced all Major League hitters in slugging percentage (1.143). Among AL batters he was tied for first in home runs and total bases (24), and he tied for third in batting average.

The 25-year-old middle infielder is currently enjoying a six-game hitting streak and recorded three multi-hit games last week.

On Saturday, the Orlando, Florida native slugged two homers against the Boston Red Sox at Safeco Field. It was Miller's fifth career multi-home run game, and 10 of his 23 career home runs have now come in multi-homer efforts. Seattle's second round pick in the 2011 Draft is the 10th player since 2005 to record at least five multi-home run games in the first 250 games of a career, joining Prince Fielder, Chris Young, Carlos Quentin, Ryan Braun, teammate Nelson Cruz, Kendrys Morales, Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce and J.P. Arencibia. The Mariners currently lead the Majors with five multi-home run games by individual players, achieved by Miller (5/16 vs. BOS), Cruz (3 - 4/13 at LAD, 4/19 vs. TEX, 5/2 at HOU) and Mike Zunino (5/12 vs. SD). Miller's excellence in the Pacific Northwest has continued, as he enters play today batting .368 (25-for-68) with five round-trippers and a .706 slugging percentage in Seattle, both of which rank third in the AL among players with at least 10 home games played. Additionally, the left-handed hitter flashed his versatility this week, starting one game in left field in addition to his two games at shortstop. He also was slotted in as the Mariners' starting DH three times last week.

Other noteworthy performances last week included Miller's Seattle teammate James Paxton (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 14.0 IP); Miguel Cabrera (.375, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 7 R) of the Detroit Tigers; Jason Kipnis (.583, 14 H, 8 R, 4 2B) of the Cleveland Indians; Shin-Soo Choo (.419, 13 H, 3 HR, 1 3B) and the aforementioned Fielder (.393, 3 HR, 9 RBI) of the Texas Rangers; and Red Sox closer Koji Uehara (3 SV, 0.00 ERA).

In recognition of his American League Player of the Week Award, Brad Miller will be awarded a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.