Mets' Escobar & Yankees' Judge Players Of The Month In September

 

Eduardo Escobar. @Mets.

On Monday, Major League Baseball announced their September honors, and Eduardo Escobar of the Mets was named National League Player of the Month, while the Yankees' Aaron Judge was the American League Player of the Month.

This is the first time a player from each New York team has been honored as their league's Player of the Month since April 2007, when the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and the Mets' Jose Reyes won them.

Eduardo Escobar: This is the first career NL Player of the Month Award for Escobar, and he is the first Met to win it since David Wright in June 2010.

The Mets third baseman hit .340, with a .393 on-base percentage and a .649 slugging percentage, and he had eight home runs, 24 RBI, 16 runs, 33 hits, four doubles, one triple, and nine walks.

Escobar had a 10-game hitting streak from September 2-12, hitting .500 (18-36) with five homers, nine RBI, eight runs, a double, and a triple. 

"Wow" is what Mets Manager Buck Showalter said on Monday of Escobar earning the honor, before he elaborated on what was different for him in September than earlier in the season, "It's one of those things that, there's more than just the physical part of it. He got to a good place, I think, mentally and emotionally, and I do know he did some things mechanically that kind of helped him get a little more upright, you know, just finding something that kind of clicked, you know, what comes first, the chicken or the egg. It seems like people talk about guys that are not swinging the bat well, and then all of a sudden, they get a swinging bunt and a broken-bat flare somewhere on two bad swings, and then the ball looks like a watermelon coming in there. It's such a mental and emotional thing; I think he got to a place in his summer that he was in a lot better place mentally and emotionally."

Escobar hit homers in back-to-back games on two occasions in the month, September 2 and 3 against Washington, and September 10 and 11 in Miami.  hit his first career grand slam on September 23 in Oakland in a 9-2 Mets win.

Last Wednesday, he drove in all five runs in a Mets' 5-4, 10-inning win over the Miami Marlins, and got the walk-off RBI single.

Aaron Judge: This is the Yankees slugger's fifth career AL Player of the Month Award, and his third this season, as he also was honored in May and July. He is the first-ever American League Player to win it three times in the same season, and the first Major Leaguer to do it since Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998.

Judge hit .417, with a .565 on-base percentage and an .869 slugging percentage, with 10 home runs, 17 RBI, 26 runs scored, eight doubles, and 30 walks in 25 games played.

The Yankees right fielder has been chasing Roger Maris' single-season American League and Yankees home run record of 61 in 1961. This has captivated all of baseball, and he hit his 61st homer on September 28 at Toronto, and his still looking to break the record with four games left.

Judge had an 11-game hitting streak from September 8-21, which included seven multi-hit efforts. He hit .500 (22-44) with five homers, 10 RBI, and five doubles in the run, which included a four-hit game in Milwaukee on September 18, when he hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the season.

The home run record is not the only major feat Judge is seeking, as he also is on the hunt for a Triple Crown. He entered Monday leading the American League in home runs (61) and RBI (130), but his .311 batting average is second to Minnesota's Luis Arraez (.315).