Paul Goldschmidt of St. Louis Cardinals Wins NL MVP Award

As a high school senior and Astros fan growing up near Houston, Paul Goldschmidt was watching from his center-field seat in Minute Maid Park when Albert Pujols smashed one of the signature home runs of his career. It came against Astros closer Brad Lidge in Game 5 of the 2005 National League Championship Series.

On Thursday, Goldschmidt, 35, became the first St. Louis Cardinal since Pujols in 2009 to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award. The years melt together, but special moments stand out.

This was a career year for Goldschmidt, who adds his first M.V.P. Award after a summer in which he was Pujols’s teammate during the latter’s homecoming tour de force for the Cardinals, who won the N.L. Central. Goldschmidt received 22 of the 30 first-place votes, while a pair of standout third basemen finished behind him: San Diego’s Manny Machado (.298, 32 homers, 102 R.B.I.) was second with seven first-place votes, and Goldschmidt’s St. Louis teammate Nolan Arenado (.293, 30 homers, 103 R.B.I.) was third with one.

As late as Sept. 1, Goldschmidt was challenging to become the first N.L. player to win the league’s triple crown since another Cardinal, Joe Medwick, whose nickname was Ducky, did it in 1937. A September slump scotched his chance, but Goldschmidt wound up finishing second in the N.L. in R.B.I. (115), third in batting average (.317) and tied for fifth in home runs (35).

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/sports/baseball/paul-goldschmidt-nl-mvp.html