Freddie Freeman beats out Yasiel Puig for final NL All-Star spot
It seems the only thing Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig hasn’t been able to do in the last month is earn a spot in the All-Star game. Fans voted Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman into the final National League spot in the Tuesday game at Citi Field in New York.
Freeman, a Fountain Valley native, entered Thursday’s games batting .307 with nine home runs and 56 runs batted in. The El Modena High product finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2011 and hit a career high 23 home runs with 94 RBIs last year.
Puig sat in second place heading into the final day of voting, which featured a frantic Twitter race that counted MLB-designated hashtags. In all, there were a record 79.2 million votes cast, according to Major League Baseball. Freeman won the NL balloting with a record 19.6 million votes.
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San Francisco outfielder Hunter Pence, Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond and Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez were also on the ballot. MLB has not announced the number of votes received by each player.
Puig has galvanized what was a last-place Dodgers team since his arrival on June 3, hitting .394 with eight home runs and 19 RBIs through 35 games.
Along with first baseman Gonzalez, Puig was looking to become the second Dodgers player to win the final-spot fan vote. Nomar Garciaparra won the spot in 2006.
Gonzalez leads the Dodgers in almost every major offensive category, including home runs (14), RBIs (58) and runs scored (37).
However, the second-place finish doesn’t completely end Puig’s All-Star hopes. In 2012, four of the five Final Vote candidates made the team as injury replacements.
From the American League, fans voted Toronto Blue Jays reliever Steve Delabar into his first All-Star Game with 9.6 million votes. The right-hander has a 1.74 ERA with 57 strikeouts.
Delabar beat out New York Yankees reliever David Robertson, Detroit Tigers closer Joaquin Benoit, Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara and Texas Rangers reliever Tanner Scheppers.
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