RubberDucks Ka'ai Tom Named Eastern League's May Player of the Month
June 4, 2019 - Eastern League (EL1)
Akron RubberDucks News Release
Akron RubberDucks outfielder Ka'ai Tom
(Akron RubberDucks, Credit: David Monseur)
Scarborough, ME - The Eastern League is pleased to announce Akron RubberDucks outfielder Ka'ai Tom has been selected as the Eastern League Player of the Month for the month of May. Tom batted .333 (32-for-96) with six doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 14 RBIs, 21 runs scored, two stolen bases, a .434 on-base percentage, and a .635 slugging percentage in 26 games during the month. The 25-year old reached base at least once in 23 of the 26 games he played in during the month of May and had multiple hits in eight of those games. That included a pair of games during the month in which he hit a pair of homers. The first came on May 11th at Reading when Ka'ai went 3-for-5 with a pair of solo homers in a 15-2 Akron victory. Tom's second two-homer performance came on May 29th against the visiting Bowie Baysox when he went 3-for-5 with a pair of three-run homers while driving in a career-high six runs in Akron's 9-8 victory.
The 5'9", 190 lb. slugger led all Eastern League players in on-base percentage (.434), slugging percentage (.635), and OPS (1.069) during the month of May and tied for the lead in runs scored (21). He also finished ranked among the monthly league leaders in hits (32-2nd), total bases (61-2nd), batting average (.333-tied 2nd), home runs (7-tied 3rd), walks (16-tied 3rd), and triples (1-tied 10th).
Tom, who is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, is hitting .272 with seven doubles, three triples, nine home runs, 25 RBIs, and 32 runs scored in 51 games this season. He currently ranks among the league leaders in runs scored (32-tied 4th), triples (3-tied 5th), total bases (90-6th), walks (28-tied 6th), slugging percentage (.489-7th), home runs (9-tied 7th), on-base percentage (.374-10th), and OPS (.863-10th).
Ka'ai, who was also selected as the winner of the Eastern League Player of the Week Award for the period of May 20th-May 26th, was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the fifth round of the 2015 draft out of the University of Kentucky.
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 Akron RubberDucks outfielder Ka'ai Tom (David Monseur) |
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