Aaron Judge rests, Luis Arraez will win AL batting championship
It's no longer a question if Luis Arraez will win the American League batting title, but by how much.
Arraez is the de facto champ on the final day of the regular season as New York's Aaron Judge is getting a rest day after slugging his record-setting 62nd home run on Tuesday night. He was the only threat to Arraez's first career batting championship.
Arraez is hitting .315. Judge is at .3105, rounded up to .311 in the official stats.
Assuming Judge doesn't pinch hit, the only way Arraez can lose the title is if he goes 0-for-8 in the season finale Wednesday against the White Sox. That would drop his average to .3104. Arraez is in the lineup and leading off as the designated hitter.
Arraez will join Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett as the only Twins to win a batting crown. Mauer and Oliva won it three times each and Carew did it seven times. Puckett won the title with a .339 average in 1989.
- Joe Mauer: 2006, 2008-09
- Tony Oliva: 1964-65, 1971
- Rod Carew: 1969, 1972-75, 1977-78
- Kirby Puckett: 1989
Ironically, Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau, who were cornerstone players with the Twins in the 2000s, won the National League batting title in back-to-back seasons (2013 and 2014) with the Colorado Rockies.
The Twins and White Sox start at 3:10 p.m. Central Time.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.