NEW YORK (AP) — Luis Arraez held off Shohei Ohtani's bid to win the National League Triple Crown and became the first player since the 1800s to earn batting titles with three teams.
Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. won his first American League batting championship, finishing with a major league-best .332 average.
Arraez went 1 for 3 on Sunday and posted a .314 average for San Diego, the lowest for an NL batting champion since Tony Gwynn's record-low .313 in 1988. After striking out and flying out in his first two at-bats, Arraez doubled in the sixth inning to reach 200 hits for the second straight season. He was pulled for a defensive replacement in the bottom half.
Arraez won the 2022 AL title at .316 for Minnesota and the 2023 NL title at .354 for Miami, which traded him to the Padres in May. He became the first NL player with 200 hits in consecutive seasons since Juan Pierre in 2003 and '04.
“This one was hard. I couldn’t sleep last night,” Arraez said, adding the pressure contributed to him striking out leading off — just his 29th strikeout this season and third since Aug. 10.
“I’m not perfect. I say to myself, you've got to do something,” Arraez recalled. "That’s never happened! But I’m not perfect."
Dan Brouthers won five batting titles with four teams from 1882-92.
Ohtani went 1 for 4 with an eighth-inning single and finished second in the National League at .310. In his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs. He also got his 59th stolen base Sunday to cap a remarkable campaign in which he became the first major leaguer with 50 homers and 50 steals in one season. The two-way star did not pitch this year following elbow surgery in September 2023.
“I didn’t think about the Triple Crown or how close I was to it today,” Ohtani said through a translator. “Today, I was focused on having quality at-bats.”
Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals was the last NL Triple Crown winner in 1937. The most recent player to achieve the feat in either league was Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera in 2012, which ended a 45-year drought.
Atlanta slugger Marcell Ozuna finished third in the NL in batting at .302.
Witt, who took his first day off all season Saturday, went 1 for 4 in the Royals' finale to finish at .332. Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero was second at .323 and the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge third at .322.
“It’s special and it’s an honor,” Witt said. “It’s something that wasn’t even a goal. You never think as a kid it would ever happen and now it happened.”
Judge had 58 homers to lead the major leagues for the second time after hitting an AL-record 62 in 2022. His 144 RBIs were the most in the majors since Philadelphia's Ryan Howard had 146 in 2008.
Seven batters are hitting .300 or higher, which would be the fewest since a record low six in 1968. There were 55 in 1999 during the Steroids Era.
Boston outfielder Jarren Duran led the major leagues with 48 doubles and tied Arizona's Corbin Carroll for the lead with 14 triples, the first time a player had a share in both categories since Lou Brock in 1968.
Among pitchers, this was just the fifth non-shortened season without a 20-game winner after 1871, 2006, 2009 and 2017.
Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale topped the major leagues with 18 wins each. Hampered by injuries, the Braves left-hander totaled 17 wins over the previous five seasons.
Sale led the NL in ERA at 2.38, and Skubal’s 2.39 mark led the AL.
Sale topped the NL with 235 strikeouts and Skubal led the AL with 228. Sale became the first pitcher to win an NL pitching Triple Crown since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011.
Skubal became the first AL pitching Triple Crown winner since Cleveland's Shane Bieber during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and the first in a full season since Justin Verlander in 2011.
“When you see special seasons like this, the hardest thing to do for all of us, is to put it in proper context while you’re watching it,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re going to look at Tarik’s year much differently five years from now, 10 years from now."
There have been a record-low 28 complete games, down from 35 last year and 29 in 2020. The 16 shutouts were down from 23 last season and matched 2022 as the fewest in a non-shortened season since 1874.
Washington stole 223 bases, the most since the 1993 Montreal Expos swiped 228.
The Chicago White Sox finished 41-121, breaking the post-1900 record for losses that had been held by the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120 during the franchise's first season. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the overall major league mark at 20-134.
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham and Larry Lage, and AP freelance writers Rick Farlow and Jack Thompson contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) waves off teammates to catch a pop fly hit by Atlanta Braves' Matt Olson in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani swings at a pitch from Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
San Diego Padres' Luis Arraez (4) gets a hug in the dugout from teammate Xander Bogaerts, right, after hitting a double against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
San Diego Padres' Luis Arraez celebrates after his double against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had begun a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, opening a new front in its war against the Lebanese militant group.
In a brief announcement, it said it was striking Hezbollah targets in areas close to the Israeli border, and that air force and artillery units were carrying out attacks to support the ground forces. It gave no details on how long the operation would last, but said the army had been training and preparing for months.
“A few hours ago, the IDF began limited, localized and targeted ground raids," it said. “These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”
The incursion came shortly after it was approved by Israeli political leaders and marked a new stage in Israel's war against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group.
Earlier, U.S. officials said Israel had launched small ground raids against Hezbollah and sealed off communities along its northern border on Monday as Israeli artillery pounded southern Lebanon.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Israel informed the U.S. about the raids, which he said were described as “limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border.”
The sounds of airstrikes were heard throughout Beirut and smoke rose from the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after Israel ordered residents of three buildings to evacuate.
There were no reports of direct clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants, who last engaged in ground combat on Lebanese soil during a monthlong war in 2006.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost every day since the war in Gaza began, displacing tens of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon. Israel says it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for families to return to their homes near the Lebanon border. Hezbollah has promised to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hezbollah vowed Monday to keep fighting even after its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top officials were recently wiped out by Israeli strikes.
The group's acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, Hezbollah is ready. He said commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.
The man widely expected to take over the top post from Kassem is Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs.
Shortly before the Israeli invasion, the army declared three northern communities near the Lebanese border to be “closed military zones,” indicating that the ground operation was imminent.
The army has heavily beefed up forces along the border in recent days, and commanders have said they are prepared to go into Lebanon if ordered to.
Chris Coyle, a resident of northern Israel, said the army had erected gates and checkpoints throughout the region and positioned scores of tanks along the border in recent days. “They’re certainly getting ready to go in,” he said.
In the nearby Golan Heights, an Associated Press reporter heard Israeli artillery fire and explosions in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces also fired flares into Lebanon.
An AP reporter in the southern Lebanon town of Marjayoun reported sounds of heavy shelling and explosions and occasional airstrikes coming from areas closer to the border.
Israeli strikes in recent weeks have hit what the military says are thousands of militant targets across large parts of Lebanon. Over 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Early Monday, an airstrike hit a residential building in central Beirut, killing three Palestinian militants, as Israel appeared to send a message that no part of Lebanon is out of bounds.
Hezbollah has significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week to several hundred daily, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. Several people have been wounded in Israel. There have been no fatalities since two soldiers were killed near the border on Sept. 19.
But Hezbollah’s capabilities remain unclear.
As recently as two weeks ago, a strike like Monday's in central Beirut — outside of the main areas where Hezbollah operates and next to a busy transportation hub normally crowded with buses and taxis — would have been seen as a major escalation and likely followed by a long-range Hezbollah strike into Israel.
But the unspoken rules of the long-running conflict no longer seem to be in effect.
It's possible Hezbollah is holding back to save resources for a bigger battle. But the militant group might also be in disarray after Israeli intelligence apparently penetrated its highest levels.
Some European countries began pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon on Monday. Germany sent a military plane to evacuate diplomats’ relatives and others. Bulgaria sent a government jet to get the first group of its citizens out.
Monday's strike in Beirut killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist faction that has not been meaningfully involved in months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has not claimed the strike but is widely assumed to have carried it out.
Also Monday, Hamas announced its top commander in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed with his family in an airstrike on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre. The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted him.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into northern Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into Israel sparked the war in the Palestinian territory.
Israel responded to the rockets with airstrikes in Lebanon, and the fighting has steadily escalated over the past year. The Lebanese government says the fighting may have displaced up to a million people, although the U.N. estimate is around 200,000.
The United States and its allies have called for a cease-fire, hoping to avoid further escalation that could draw in Iran and set off a wider war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown little interest, as his country racks up military achievements against a longtime foe.
France, which has close ties to Lebanon, has joined the United States in calling for a cease-fire. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, visiting Beirut Monday, urged Israel to refrain from a ground offensive.
Barrot also called on Hezbollah to stop firing on Israel, saying the group “bears heavy responsibility in the current situation, given its choice to enter the conflict.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, speaking after meeting with Barrot, said the country is committed to an immediate cease-fire followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops in the south, in keeping with a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war but was never fully implemented.
Hezbollah, which boasts tens of thousands of battle-hardened fighters and long-range missiles capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel, has long been seen as the most powerful militant group in the region and a key partner to Iran in both threatening and deterring Israel.
But Hezbollah has never faced an onslaught quite like this one, which began with a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies in mid-September that killed dozens of people and wounded around 3,000 — including many fighters but also many civilians.
Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Sam McNeil in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed reporting.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, in a position near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit is seen near the Israel-Lebanon border on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, in a position near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli tank manoeuvres in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot speaks during a press conference at the Pine Palace, which is the residence of the French ambassador, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Damaged cars are parked in front of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese policeman looks at damaged apartments that were hit by Israeli strike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Damaged apartments, right, are seen in a building that was hit by Israeli strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Two women take a selfie next to a newly painted graffiti of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a day after Hezbollah confirms its leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People inspect a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A photographer documents damage in a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Policemen and civil defense workers stand next to damaged cars near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Policemen and civil defense workers inspect a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A firefighter inspects a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
