PHOENIX — Don’t get San Diego Padres infielder Luis Arraez wrong, he loves baseball history as much as anyone, but unfortunately he loves to spoil the Triple Crown season. However, there is a point.
For the second time in three years, Arraez has ruined a rare Triple Crown season, this time making sure Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani doesn’t become the first National League player to win the Triple Crown since 1937. I made it.
Instead, Arraez made history for himself on Sunday, becoming the first player in baseball to win three consecutive batting titles with three different teams, batting .314, four points ahead of Ohtani (.310).
“He’s a great hitter,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “What a great guy. He was a big part of this group.”
Arraez entered the final game of the regular season with a batting average of .314 and Ohtani with a batting average of .309, and although the lead in the lineup seemed safe, we’re still talking about Ohtani.
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He led the National League with 54 home runs and 130 RBIs, and finished the season with 29 hits in 53 at bats (.547 batting average), 7 home runs, 22 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases in his last 12 games.
Ohtani would have needed at least four hits to win the batting title, but in the final game against the Colorado Rockies he went 1-for-4, while Arraez went 1-for-3.
“I’ve seen a superstar,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters. “I think what amazes me is the expectations that are placed on him and the way he puts it on himself and still shows up every day and puts on a show. I can’t imagine the pressure that comes with those expectations. It doesn’t work either.”
Arraez, who spoiled Aaron Judge’s Triple Crown season in 2022 with a batting average of .315, was four points higher than Judge, who set an American League record with 62 home runs and 131 RBIs, but he has a similar chance of winning a batting title. He revealed that he was feeling stressed.
“This was tough, I couldn’t sleep.” [Saturday night]” Arraez said. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m human. I don’t want to think about it, but I do think about it a lot.”
Not only was Arraez aiming to win a batting title, he was just one hit away from hitting 200 in a season, becoming the first player since Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve to do so.
When he struck out in his first at-bat, the pressure increased to a degree that surprised even himself.
“That will never happen,” Arraez said. He had only struck out 17 times in 521 at-bats, but earlier this season he went 141 consecutive at-bats without a strikeout, his longest streak in 20 years.
In the third inning, he stood at bat and hit a ball to center field, but this time he slammed the bat into the grass in frustration.
Now, I don’t know if Ohtani is close or not, but in the 6th inning, Araez hit a double to right-center field, which was his 200th hit of the season and raised his batting average to .314, but it was out of reach for Ohtani. He was quickly removed from the game as a pinch runner and received warm congratulations from his teammates.
He was a batting champion again, and he did it the right way.
He knew that with Ohtani, anything was possible, and he never considered staying out to protect his batting average.
“Brother, he can do a lot of things,” Arraez said. “He’s different. I say he’s not perfect. He’s human too.
“But thank God I won the batting title.”
Arraez becomes the first player to win the batting title three years in a row since Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers from 2011 to 2013. He is the first Padres player to win the batting honor since Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.
“This is important to me because it’s different,” Arraez said. “Everyone wants to hit a home run right now, but that’s not my game. I just want to put the ball in play. I just want to get on base and score some runs and win the game.
“So, I’m not looking for home runs. I want to hit .300 every year. And God has given me the opportunity to hit.”
Yes, even if it means ruining the coveted Triple Crown, last accomplished in the National League by Joe “Duckie” Medwick in 1937.
“I don’t think about it,” Arraez said. sometimes I think about losing [the title]but today I had the opportunity to say, “This is mine.” I hit a double, so I said, “This is still mine.”
Arraez hit .316 with the Minnesota Twins in 2022, winning his first batting title, and returned in 2023 with the Miami Marlins, hitting .354. He was traded to the Padres on May 4 for reliever Woosok Ko and three prospects, with the Marlins paying him all but $592,000 of his $10.6 million contract bonus.
“He’s been a big part of this group, and I think the record proves that,” Shildt said. “We celebrated as a group. Everyone was happy for him. We said we were the next couple. [of batting titles] I’m from San Diego. ”
Oh, and that also sounds good for Arraez, who wants to make sure he ends his streak of winning batting titles with different teams.
“I want to stay here,” Arraez said. “I love San Diego. They opened the door for me and they believed in me.
“This is home.”