Cardinals' Wong should be proud of third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting

ST. LOUIS -- Kolten Wong will take a third-place finish in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year.

He didn't become the first Cardinal to win the award since Albert Pujols in 2001, but he got to appear on the MLB Network alongside winner Jacob deGrom, who posted a 2.67 ERA in 23 starts for the Mets, and runner-up Billy Hamilton, who played 152 games and stole 56 bases for the Reds.

Wong also followed Shelby Miller as the Cardinals' second straight rookie to place third in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

For a guy who went through all kinds of ups and downs in his first full big-league season, proving he has the ability to play second base on a daily basis for a playoff team was a big deal. After his unproductive call-up in 2013, proving himself was his main goal.

"Coming in, I didn't know what to expect," Wong said on the show.

No one could have expected all he went through. He struggled mightily at the outset of spring training but ended up leading the team in hitting in March. Then he started the regular season slowly and before April was over, was sent to the minors. He returned and went on a run that earned him the NL Rookie of the Month honor for May. June wasn't a week old before he bruised his left shoulder and eventually landed on the disabled list. When he came off the DL, he went off again, this time hitting five homers in seven games.

And that was the first half.

Wong settled into the second-base job in the second half and finished the regular season with a .249 batting average, 20 stolen bases and 12 homers. He was the only rookie in either league to steal 20 bases and hit at least 10 homers.

Then he turned it up in the postseason, which didn't factor in the Rookie of the Year voting. Wong had seven hits in the playoffs and none of them were measly singles. Three homers, three doubles and a triple gave him more extra-base hits in a single postseason than any NL rookie since Chipper Jones in 1995. And Jones needed twice as many plate appearances to beat out Wong by one extra-base hit.

Wong blasted game-winning home runs in Game 2 of both the NL Division Series and NL Championship Series. Against the Dodgers, he hit a two-run shot in the seventh inning that broke a 1-1 tie in a game the Cardinals won 3-1. He topped that with a walk-off homer at Busch Stadium that evened the NLCS against the Giants at one game each.

"That was my rookie of the year award, right there," Wong said on the show about his postseason.

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