Former Scarlet Knight Earns MLB Weekly Honor
Jul 20 | Baseball
In the four games following the All-Star break, DeJesus batted .500 (7-14) with one home run, four RBI, four walks and a .600 on-base percentage. The Royals lead-off man went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored to help start the second half of the season with a win over Detroit on Thursday. On Saturday DeJesus went deep for his second lead-off home run of the season and his sixth overall. This is the first Player of the Week award for DeJesus, and the first time a Royal has won since Carlos Beltran did on April 18, 2004.
As of July 19th, DeJesus was batting .298 with 47 runs, 7 home runs and 43 RBI as the starting center fielder for the Royals. DeJesus was batting .471, slugging 1.000 and had an on-base percentage of .545 with two home runs in his first five games since the All-Star break.
DeJesus shared the honor with NY Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield. Phillies second baseman Chase Utley won the National League award.
"I never thought that I'd get something like that," DeJesus said to MLB.com. "But I had a good week. It was definitely a good week and, definitely, I'm really honored to be named to that," he said. "That's awesome and we're just going to try to keep it going."
A fourth-round draft choice of the Royals in 2000, DeJesus is the Rutgers all-time leader in runs scored, and holds the top two spots on the single-season runs list, setting the BIG EAST record with 85 in 1999.
