Twins' Luis Arraez stands between Yankees' Aaron Judge and the triple crown
The final three days of the MLB regular season have arrived and the only thing standing between Aaron Judge and the triple crown is Minnesota Twins leadoff hitter Luis Arraez.
Entering play Monday, Judge leads the American League with 61 home runs and 130 RBIs. His .311 batting average ranks second in the AL, just 0.04 points behind Arraez (.315). The next closest is Boston's Xander Bogaerts at .305.
If Judge passes Arraez, he'll become the second player in the past 55 years to win the batting triple crown. Miguel Cabrera did it with the Tigers in 2012 when he led the league with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBIs. Before him, you have to go all the way back to 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski won it with the Red Sox.
Here's how Judge, who is also striving for his 62nd home run to set the record in the American League, has fared in his career against the starters the Rangers are scheduled to go with in their four-game series, which includes a doubleheader Tuesday (only three starters have been announced).
- Judge vs. Martin Perez: 1-for-9
- Judge vs. Glenn Otto: 0-for-3
- Judge vs. Jon Gray: 0-for-1
Arraez will face the White Sox with a chance to win his first batting title.
- Arraez vs. Johnny Cueto: 3-for-9
- Arraez vs. Lucas Giolito: 6-for-26
- Arreaz vs. Davis Martin: 1-for-2
The last Twin to win the batting title was Joe Mauer, who did it in 2006, 2008 and 2009.
Note: Yuriel Gurriel's .319 batting average to win the AL title in 2021 was the lowest for a batting champ in either league since Tony Gwynn won it with a .313 average in 1988.
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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.