Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw named NL co-players of the week

Remember those semi-annoying Doublemint commercials that featured the just-so-cute twins? Thinking this might feel a tad more tolerable.

With the All-Star Game, it was a particularly short week for baseball but that didn’t stop Major League Baseball from issuing its weekly awards. And since there were only three games to pick from, MLB got a little inventive and went the combo routine.

Which was particularly noteworthy for the Dodgers, since two of the starting pitchers – Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw – were named co-players of the week.

MLB liked the twins concept so well, over in the American League they named outfielder Lorenzo Cain and pitcher Dallas Keuchel its co-players, which is cool but they don’t even play on the same team.

It was hard to separate what Greinke and Kershaw did to the Washington Nationals last weekend. First Kershaw threw eight scoreless innings Saturday, striking out a season-high 14 and allowing just three hits with no walks. Then on Sunday, Greinke extended his scoreless streak to 43 2/3 total innings, throwing eight more scoreless, with 11 strikeouts and a walk.

So their twins combined to throw 16 scoreless innings, with 25 strikeouts, six hits and a walk. And win one joint Player of the Week award.