Despite going 0 for 1 in a pinch-hitting role on the season's final day, Colorado Rockies first baseman Justin Morneau has captured his first career batting title with a .319 batting average, finishing four points ahead of Josh Harrison of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
#Rockies Justin Morneau is the NL batting champ! He finishes 2014 at .319 after final AB today. Congrats @JustinMorneau
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) September 28, 2014
Morneau entered the game at .31936, and his eighth-inning groundout dropped him to .31872, which officially rounds up to .319.
Before Sunday's game, Morneau held the lead over Harrison by a score of .319 to .318. Harrison, though, went 0 for 4 Sunday, so Morneau, who did not start, had a large enough lead to secure the title.
The National League batting title comes as a tremendous improvement for Morneau. He had a career-high .345 for the Minnesota Twins in 2010. Since then, he has hit between .227 and .267 in each of the past three seasons with 2013 split between Minnesota and Pittsburgh. He signed a one-year contract with the Rockies for 2014 that includes a mutual option for 2015.
The Official Major League Baseball Rules, Section 10.22 (Minimum Standards for Individual Championships), says that a player must have at least 3.1 official plate appearances per team's games to qualify for any of the three major titles based on average:
"The individual batting, slugging or on-base percentage champion shall be the player with the highest batting average, slugging percentage or on-base percentage, as the case may be, provided the player is credited with as many or more total appearances at the plate in league championship games as the number of games scheduled for each club in his clubs league that season, multiplied by 3.1 in the case of a Major League player...."
Some may argue that the high altitude of Coors Field contributed to Morneau's return to success in 2014. While Coors Field is certainly a hitters' ball park, Morneau was nearly as good on the road. He hit .327 in 266 at bats in 68 games at home and .309 in 236 at bats in 67 road games. He showed more power in the thin air of Denver (11 HR, 52 RBI) than he did on the road (6 HR, 30 RBI), but he maintained a consistent .300+ stroke in all ball parks combined. Morneau even had a very slightly better on-base average on the road: .364 to .363.
At age 34 just after next season begins, Morneau still has time to add to his excellent career totals. He may not hit 30+ home runs anymore, but he still has the ability to drive the ball, get on base, and help his team win.
Congratulations to Justin Morneau, the 2014 National League batting champion.