Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun Wins NL MVP

Milwaukee's Ryan Braun won the National League Most Valuable Player Award Tuesday, after helping lead the Brewers to their first division title in nearly 30 years.

Braun received 20 of 32 first-place votes and 388 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Los Angeles center fielder Matt Kemp, who came close to winning the Triple Crown, received 10 first-place votes and finished with 332 points. Braun's teammate in first-baseman Prince Fielder finished third with 229 points, and Arizona's Justin Upton finished fourth with 214 points.

St. Louis’ Albert Pujols finished fifth. It was the 11th straight year the three-time MVP was in the top 10 in balloting.

Braun led the National League with a .597 slugging percentage and was second with a .332 batting average. He had 33 homers, 111 RBIs and stole 33 bases. Kemp meanwhile led the NL in homers, RBIs and was third in average.

The 28-year-old Braun is the first Brewers player to win the MVP award in the National League and first since Robin Yount won in 1989, when Milwaukee was in the AL East. Rollie Fingers (1981) and Yount in 1982 are the other Brewers to take home MVP honors.

The 2007 NL Rookie of the Year winner had his fourth straight season with more than 100 RBIs. He hit a three-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning on Sept. 23 to clinch the division title for Milwaukee.