LA Sweep: Angels’ Trout, Dodgers’ Bellinger win

NEW YORK — Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout has overcome injury and tragedy to win his third AL MVP award.

Trout got 17 of 30 firstplace votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America revealed Thursday night. Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros was second with the other 13 firstplace votes. That duo combined for all the firstand secondplace votes.

Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger made it an LA sweep, beating out the Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich for the NL prize. Bellinger got 19 of 30 firstplace votes, Yelich got 10, and Washington’s Anthony

Rendon got one while finishing third. Yelich won the award last year.

Trout had seasonending foot surgery in September. The outfielder played just 134 games but still set a career high with 45 homers. He batted .291, led the majors with a .438 onbase percentage and drove in 104 runs. It was just enough to avoid another secondplace finish — he’s tied for the record with four runnerups.

The 28yearold shined even following the death of close friend and teammate Tyler Skaggs on July 1. Trout smashed a 454foot homer wearing Skaggs’ No. 45 in the team’s first game back, when LA pitchers threw a combined nohitter.

Trout is the 10th threetime MVP and joins an elite group: Barry Bonds, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Schmidt. Bonds is the only player with more than three MVPs — he won seven.

“What an emotional last few months,” Trout said.

The 24yearold Bellinger and his loose, lefthanded swing launched 47 home runs with a .305 average, 115 RBIs and a 1.035 OPS.

He was the best player on the NL’s top team in the regular season, propelling Los Angeles to 106 wins. He’s the 10th different Dodgers player to win MVP and first since Clayton Kershaw in 2014.