Davis places third on AL MVP ballot

BALTIMORE -- Despite an historic season, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis came up short in voting for the Baseball Writers' Association of America's American League Most Valuable Player Award, finishing third behind Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout in the honor presented live on MLB Network on Thursday night.

Davis earned 232 points in the AL MVP race, including one first-place vote. Cabrera won with 385 points (23 first-place votes), while Trout garnered five first-place votes en route to 282 points.

Two of Davis' teammates finished in the top 15, with Manny Machado ninth and Adam Jones 13th.

Davis led the Majors this past season with 53 home runs and 138 RBIs. The homer total established a new O's club record, and he also bested Cabrera in doubles, total bases and games played. The sluggers scored the same number of runs (103), with Cabrera leading baseball in several notable categories, including batting average (.348), on-base percentage (.442) and slugging percentage (.636).

Trout, who also finished runner-up to Cabrera a year ago for the AL MVP Award, posted a .323/.432/.557 line in his second season, showing no signs of slowing down after one of the most memorable rookie years in baseball history.

Davis, who was named Baltimore's MVP at the end of the season, hit a quarter of the team's 212 homers and led the club with a .343 batting average with runners in scoring position.

"Crush" Davis also rewrote the history books, becoming just the fourth player in MLB history to homer in each of his team's first four games, joining Willie Mays, Mark McGwire and Nelson Cruz. Davis is just the third player in history to hit 50 or more homers and 40 or more doubles in a single season, along with Babe Ruth and Albert Belle.

Davis' 96 extra-base hits led baseball by a wide margin, leading second-place Trout by 21, and that total was 25 more than Cabrera. There have been only four other players to have led the league in extra-base hits by 20 or more since 1871: Ruth (1921), Lou Gehrig (1927), Stan Musial (1948) and Belle (1995).

An AL Gold Glove Award finalist, Davis' defense has also garnered rave reviews in a season in which he posted a .996 fielding percentage at first base, with just six errors in 155 games and 1,377 2/3 innings.

A first-year All-Star who collected the most votes of any player on the Midsummer Classic ballot, Davis won an AL Silver Slugger Award earlier this offseason in recognition of his gaudy power numbers.