NEW YORK -- Joe Mauer became the first catcher to win the American League batting title, going 2-for-4 for the Minnesota Twins on the final day of the regular season to hold off the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter.
Mauer doubled and singled against the Chicago White Sox, leaving his average at .347 down from a high of .392 on July 1 but good enough to best Jeter, who went 1-for-5 against Toronto and wound up at .343.
"You couldn't really not think about it," Mauer said. "There were so many questions. Scores on the board, people saying you need to do this, do that. I've never been so nervous in my life. I'm just happy it's all over with and we're here celebrating."
Mauer became the first catcher to win a batting title in either league since Ernie Lombardi hit .330 for the 1942 Boston Braves.
"That's something you can never take away when you're the first. It's unbelievable, the things that happened today," Mauer said.
Jeter, who has never won a batting title, finished second to Boston's Nomar Garciaparra in 1999 and four years later went 0-for-3 on the final day, finishing two points behind Boston's Bill Mueller and one back of Manny Ramirez.
"Everyone would love to win a batting title," Jeter said. "We got bigger and better things starting on Tuesday, so that's our main focus."
The Yankees and Twins both finished as AL division champions. New York faces Detroit in the first round and Minnesota plays Oakland.
Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez won the NL batting title for the first time, going 2-for-4 against Cincinnati to wind up at .344, five points ahead of Florida's Miguel Cabrera.
Also, of note
Minnesota's Johan Santana and the New York Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang topped the AL at 19-6. In the NL, six pitchers tied with 16 wins.
Santana won his second AL ERA title at 2.77 and struck out 245 to lead the majors and win his third straight AL title.
2 comments:
mutley - maybe try a little dust in the armpits. Just a thought.
And
Thank you Paopao - I'll be checking out your blog(s).
I'm happy it works for ya.
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