Los Angeles Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez earns NL Player of the Week honor

Red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers' first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was named National League Player of the Week today after he opened the season with five blasts during the team's first three games.

The four-time All-Star homered on Opening Day and on Tuesday night against the San Diego Padres before going deep three times in Wednesday’s contest against his former club, becoming the only player in Major League history to hit five home runs through his team’s first three contests of a season (courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau).

In doing so, Gonzalez became just the third Dodger since 1914 to open the season with at least one home run in each of the club’s first three games, joining Jim Wynn (1974) and Carl Furillo (1955). He went a combined 10-for-13 off Padres pitchers during the three-game set at Dodger Stadium, leading Los Angeles to victories on Monday and Wednesday.

The veteran slugger, who led baseball with 116 RBI in 2014, started the 2015 campaign on a torrid pace, leading the Majors with five home runs, 14 hits, 32 total bases and a .609 batting average (14-for-23) in six games last week.

Considering that sluggers Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp are no longer with the team, and that the lighter-hitting Howie Kendrick is now batting behind Gonzalez in the cleanup spot, Gonzalez's early hot bat is even more impressive.

Gonzalez also posted the top slugging (1.391) and on-base percentages (.667) in the Majors and led the NL with eight runs scored, while tying for fourth among National Leaguers with seven RBI.

Gonzalez collected at least one hit in all six of his games last week and had multi-hit performances in four of them. This is his eighth career Player of the Week Award and first as a Dodger.

Other noteworthy performances last week included Atlanta pitchers Julio Teheran (2-0, 1.50 ERA, 9 SO, 12.0 IP) and Jason Grilli (3 SV, 0.00 ERA, 4 SO, 3.0 IP); San Francisco’s Santiago Casilla (3 SV, 0.00 ERA, 3 SO, 3.0 IP) and Nori Aoki (.400, 4 R, 12 H, 2 2B); Bartolo Colon (2-0, 2.25 ERA, 13 SO, 13.0 IP) of the New York Mets; Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto (0-1, 0.64 ERA, 14 SO, 14.0 IP), Todd Frazier (.292, 5 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, .708 SLG, .480 OBP) and Joey Votto (.333, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 5 R, .708 SLG, .429 OBP); and Colorado’s D.J. LeMahieu (.480, 12 H, 3B, 5 RBI, .480 OBP).

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services