Houston Astros Fan Favorite Wins AL Player of the Week Honors

Houston Astros outfielder Chas McCormick was recently named the American League Player of the Week. Will he continue his offensive uptick in the second half of the season?

Houston Astros outfielder Chas McCormick was recently named American League Player of the Week, the first such honor of his young career.

In this past weekend's series against the Los Angeles Angels, McCormick garnered seven hits -- including three walks, three home runs and five RBI.

He capped things off in a major way in the series finale with a multi-home run game with a pair of long balls against the Angels bullpen.

This season, the third in an Astros uniform, McCormick is slashing .285/.370/.534 with 35 RBI, 12 home runs and nine stolen bases.

Over the past seven games, the young outfielder is slashing .478/.586/1.000 with four home runs, four walks, eight RBI and one stolen base -- as he's continued his torrid pace after taking home Player of the Week honors.

In fact, over the past 15 games McCormick is slashing .392/.475/.765 with five home runs, five walks, 14 RBI and two stolen bases and over the prior 30 games he is slashing .330/.420/.621 with eight home runs, 11 walks, 21 RBI and five stolen bases.

Pretty impressive to say the least.

The Astros (53-43) are currently 4.5 games behind the first-place Texas Rangers (58-39) in the AL West.

If McCormick can continue his offensive uptick in the second of the season, it will greatly help the Astros chances of catching the Rangers in a hunt for October.

Houston returns to the diamond on Thursday night at Oakland, with rookie right-hander J.P. France (4-3, 3.31 ERA) taking the hill for the Astros.

The Athletics, meanwhile, counter with southpaw Hogan Harris (2-3, 6.51 ERA).

First pitch for Thursday's matchup is slated for 8:40 p.m. CT at Oakland Coliseum.

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