Coors Field or not, the Colorado Rockies are beginning a trend of weekly awards. Daniel Murphy, per a league announcement Monday, was named National League Player of the Week.
The accolade is the fourth of the year for the Rockies, a total that doesn’t include Charlie Blackmon’s Player of the Month nod for June. Blackmon, Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado have also been dubbed Player of the Week this season.
In the shortened three-game stint after the All-Star break, Murphy went 8-for-12 (.667) with a pair of home runs. Overall, he slugged 1.417 over the same period.
Among his trio of games, Murphy had a 4-for-4 contest against the Cincinnati Reds, tying his career high for hits in a single game. It was the 20th four-hit performance of his career.
After struggling to hit for power at Coors Field earlier in the year, Murphy had a homer in back-to-back games, including his inaugural long ball as a Rockies’ hitter at home:
Daniel Murphy with the go-ahead jack to give the @Rockies the lead!#Rockies pic.twitter.com/2Df7LubAzs
— MLB Highlights (@MLBDaily365) July 13, 2019
Before the break, Murphy shed his finger brace that he’d been wearing ever since the first week of the year when he fractured it on a sliding play against the Marlins. Once the annoyance was gone, the results were the best of the year for the veteran.
In 67 games, the club’s top free agent acquisition has hit .297, including 28 extra-base hits and 49 runs driven in. His average is fourth on the club after hitting only .229 in an injury-riddled first two months.
In the American League, the award went to Brandon Lowe. Across four games, he hit 8-for-17 (.471) and slugged three homers.