April was slow going, and May wasn’t much better. Cleveland’s landmark offseason slugger signing took a while to start making waves offensively, but 1B/DH Edwin Encarnacion has caught fire with the onset of summer. He’s done so in a way Tribe faithful and his fantasy owners had hoped would happen, with a heavy recent helping of efficiency and power. He went buck-wild at the Padres’ expense Thursday to the tune of 4-5, 4 R, HR, 2 RBI with a double to help ice an easy 11-2 win. The BB/K ratio of 17:16 Encarnacion posted in June is also encouraging, as we all know some DHs can be guilty of ill-advisedly swinging for broke. His homer and RBI counts for each month that passes have increased successively, and the entrenched Indian cleanup man has perhaps surprisingly scored more runs himself than he has plated runs (54 runs to 47 RBI). Eighteen homers might just be good and not great right now, but he has plenty of room to make for lost early opportunities to dump balls into bleachers especially when you realize his hard contact is registering at a career-high 38.4%.
Let’s take a look at some other remarkable hitting performances across the league: