Luis Arráez achieved an unprecedented record after his third consecutive batting title in the MLB

• The Venezuelan became the first MLB player to achieve three consecutive crowns with three different teams

Venezuelan hitter Luis Arráez marked a milestone on September 29 by winning his third batting title in the Major Leagues, reaching an average of .314 during this 2024 regular season. Although there are still other teams pending to play, so far He remains mathematically the hitter with the best average in the National League.

With this, Arráez would set a precedent as the first player in history to achieve three consecutive batting crowns with three different teams in both the National League and the American League. It should be remembered that the current San Diego Padres player won his first title in 2022 with the Minnesota Twins, with an average of .316. He then repeated the feat in 2023, now with the Florida Marlins and hitting .354.

“The regular season has come to an end and I feel incredibly grateful for all the support we have received. “San Diego has become a true home for me and winning this batting title in this uniform means a lot,” the player wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter).

Winning game

Photo: courtesy

Arraez consolidated his mark in the September 29 meeting between the San Diego Padres and the Arizona D-backs, at Chase Field in Phoenix. Although the locals won 11-5, at the top of the sixth inning he scored a double to center field. When he reached base, his teammates celebrated the dogout as if it had been a victory for the entire team.

With that hit, the man from Yaracuy closed the season with exactly 200 hits in 637 at-bats. Of this total, 159 hits were scored with the Padres, a team he joined in early May as a mid-season acquisition. Previously, he had expressed discomfort with his performance with the Marlins.

If his title is confirmed, Arráez would be the fourth player in San Luis history to obtain the batting crown. The last was Tony Gwynn in 1997. According to the MLB portal, this season he maintained a streak of 141 consecutive plate appearances without striking out, the longest in 20 years and the second longest in Padres history. after Gwynn.

“La Regadera” is also the sixth Venezuelan batting champion in the Major Leagues, along with Andrés Galarraga, Magglio Ordóñez, Carlos González, Miguel Cabrera and José Altuve. Of all of them, Arráez is the only one with three titles.

Competitors

Shohei Ohtani. Photo: Getty Images

By closing his season with his 200th hit, Arráez buried Japanese Shohei Ohtani’s chances of being the National League batting champion. The Dodgers star completed his final game on September 28 with a .310 average.

Another close competitor was the Dominican Marcell Ozuna, who started leading the table with the Atlanta Braves, but then was relegated behind Arráez and Ohtani. Precisely on September 30, he had his last game of the season against the New York Mets, leaving him with an average of .302.

In the past, other National League players had already achieved three consecutive crowns. An example of this is Honus Wagner, who won four in a row between 1906 and 1909; Rogers Hornsby, who had six consecutive titles between 1920 and 1925; or Tony Gwynn himself with four titles between 1994 and 1997. However, the Venezuelan is the first to achieve it with different teams.

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