Linares Named Eastern League Player of the Week

Portland, Maine- Portland Sea Dogs outfielder J.C. Linares has been selected as the Eastern League Player of the Week for the Eastern League's final week of the season; August 26th through September 2nd.

Linares appeared in eight games hitting .486 (17-for-35) with a double, four home runs, and 13 RBI with a 1.000 slugging percentage during the week. He started the week off by blasting two home runs against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on August 26th and collected a career high six RBI in the 10-5 Sea Dogs win. He had at least one hit in each of the eight games he played in last week and had multiple hits in six of those games, including going 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles, one triple, two RBI and three runs scored in a 9-3 win at New Hampshire on Thursday, August 29th. The 5'11", 190 lb. slugger led all Eastern League players in batting average (.486), hits (17), extra-base hits (9), total bases (35), RBI (13), slugging percentage (1.000) and OPS (1.500) last week. He also finished ranked among the weekly leaders in home runs (4-tied 1st), doubles (4-tied 2nd), on-base percentage (.500-3rd), runs scored (8-tied 5th) and triples (1-tied 5th). The 28 year-old raised his average from .248 to .276 during the week and ended the season with a 12 game hit streak.

On the season, Linares batted .276 (83-for-301) with 24 doubles, eight home runs, 51 RBI and 44 runs scored in 81 games for the Sea Dogs. Linares, a native of Cuba, was signed by the Boston Red Sox as an international free agent on July 8, 2010.  

Linares is the only Sea Dogs player this season to earn Eastern League Player of the Week honors. The last Sea Dog to earn an Eastern League Player of the Week award was Jeremy Hazelbaker for the week of July 16-22, 2012. The sea Dogs have had three pitchers this season earn Eastern League Pitcher of the Weeks honors; Chris Martin (April 4th-14th), Drake Britton (June 3rd-9th), and Keith Couch (August 5th-11th).

Linares previously earned Eastern League Player of the Week honors for the Opening Week of the 2012 season.