KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis, in a nice finishing touch to the best month of his career, was named the American League Player of the Month for May.

Kipnis hit .429 (51-for-119) with 30 runs, 15 doubles, three triples, four homers and 17 RBI. He is the first Indian to win the award since he was named AL Player of the Month for June in 2013.

Kipnis led all big-league players in batting average, on-base percentage (.511) and runs in May. In the AL, he finished first in slugging percentage (.706) and extra base hits (22). He hit safely in 25 of the 29 games he played in last month.

The last day of May was Sunday and Kipnis went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI in a 6-3 victory over Seattle in 12 innings. The two hits pushed him over the 50-hit threshold and run gave him 30 for the month.

"To reach 30 runs and 50 hits in the way we did it makes it even better," said Kipnis after that game. "We did it in a win and in an extra-inning game.

"The 51 hits is a lot of hard work in the cages coming to fruition. The 30 runs is a credit to my teammates. I can get on base, but I'm not scoring without them. They're driving me in.

"It was a fun month. No only for me, but our team as well. We're finally starting to turn it around."

The Indians went 17-12 in May after going 7-14 in April.

The 51 hits were the most in May by an Indians player since 1914. His 22 extra base hits, according to Elias, made him the first Indians second baseman to collect 20 or more in a month. The last Indian to get 22 extra-base hits in a month was Travis Hafner in August of 2006.

Kipnis became just the third player in MLB history with more than 50 hits and at least 30 runs in May. Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Al Simmons were the others. Cobb had 58 hits and 40 runs in 1921 and Simmons had 57 hits and 32 runs in 1925.

The left-handed hitting Kipnis reached base 72 times in May -- 51 hits, 16 walks, five hit by pitches. The last Indian to do that was Hall of Famer Earl Averill, who reached base 74 times in July of 1934.

Kipnis came out on top in a loaded field that included Texas' Prince Fielder (.377, nine homers, 28 RBI, .656 slugging percentage), Toronto' Josh Donaldson (10 homers, 23 RBI, 24 runs, .649 slugging) and Chris Colabello (.368, seven doubles, 15 runs, .417 on-base percentage), the Twins' Brian Dozier (24 runs, 10 doubles, seven homers, .630 slugging) and Oakland's Stephen Vogt seven homers 23 RBI, .614 slugging) of the Oakland Athletics.