 06/02/2003 11:22 PM ET
Young is AL Player of the Week
|
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
|
 |
SAN DIEGO -- Dmitri Young has officially turned his season around -- from a 1-for-22 opening week to American League Player of the Week.
Dmitri Young
/ 1B
|
|
|
|
The Detroit Tigers left fielder/third baseman literally pounded his way to the league's top weekly honor by batting .458 (11-for-24) with three home runs and seven RBIs during the Tigers' week-long homestand against the Indians and Yankees. Two of those home runs cleared the distant center-field wall at Comerica Park, a feat accomplished only 10 times in the three-plus seasons of the stadium's history beforehand.
The park yielded two wall-clearing homers in each of the previous two seasons. Dean Palmer is the only other player to do it twice.
Young's other statistical feats included a 2-for-3, four-RBI Memorial Day performance against Cleveland, then the game-tying and game-winning RBIs Saturday to beat New York. He finished off the week by going 2-for-6 with three runs scored in Sunday's 10-9 loss to the Yankees in 17 innings.
Sunday's performance put his season average at .278. It stood at .165 on May 2. For that, he also earned votes for AL Player of the Month, which went to Seattle's Edgar Martinez.
"It's what we were hoping for," Trammell said Sunday about Young's month-long performance. "This guy here, when he hits it, he moves it. Gosh, he's a strong man. I'm thankful he got going."
He'll gladly take Player of the Week, his first honor of any kind since the Tigers acquired him from Cincinnati 18 months ago. He beat out Martinez, Seattle's Bret Boone (.357, three homers and nine RBIs), Anaheim's Jeff DaVanon, Baltimore's Luis Matos and Toronto's Frank Catalanotto.
"I knew it was going to happen," Young said Saturday of his hitting reversal. "There were a couple of minor adjustments I had to make. I didn't give up my approach. That's tough when you're struggling. I was down right under the earth trying to hit. I kept my same approach and stuck with it."
Young is the first Tiger to win Player of the Week honors since Randall Simon last July 22. Robert Fick also won the award June 10. Detroit has had at least one winner in each of the last four seasons.
Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.
|
News
