#news David Freese is 6th player to be named LCS MVP and #WorldSeries MVP in same season

MVP redux

The Cardinals' David Freese is the sixth player to be named the LCS MVP and the World Series MVP in the same postseason.

Player	Team	Year
David Freese	STL	2011
Cole Hamels	PHI	2008
Livan Hernandez	FLA	1997
Orel Hershiser	LA	1988
Darrell Porter	STL	1982
Willie Stargell	PIT	1979

Amazingly, though, it wasn't even Freese's first MVP award of this postseason. He took home the same honor for the NL Championship Series after hitting .545 (12-for-22) against the Brewers. And to top it all off, Freese enters October lore with a record all his own: the most runs driven in in a single postseason.

The double in the first inning Friday gave him 21 RBIs this postseason, pushing him past three others who had 19 -- Boston's David Ortiz (2004), the Angels' Scott Spiezio (2002) and Cleveland's Sandy Alomar Jr. (1997). The double also quickly tied the game at 2, after Texas plated a pair in the top of the first.

Freese finished the World Series with a .348 average (8-for-23) and the postseason with a .397 (25-for-63) average. He hit five home runs in the playoffs -- his lone homer in the Fall Classic a walk-off shot in the 11th inning of Game 6, a 10-9 win.

Before Freese's homer to dead center on Thursday, he sent the game to extras with a two-run triple with two outs in the ninth. For three straight at-bats, from Thursday's ninth inning through Friday's first, Freese either tied the game or put the Cardinals ahead, an amazing performance in baseball's most intense setting.

"I had about 45 minutes of sleep last night," Freese said. "I couldn't really understand what was going on, and I think that was a good thing. You learn from all these veterans, how to go about this game. I wouldn't be here without all the guys on this team, all the coaches I've had since I was 3. My dad taught me how to hit the ball the other way."

Freese, who's in his third year in the Majors, hit .297 with a .350 on-base percentage, 10 home runs and 55 RBIs in 97 games and 353 plate appearances in the regular season. He was originally selected by the Padres in the ninth round of the 2006 Draft, coming over to the Cards in 2007 in the Jim Edmonds trade.

Freese receives MVP trophy

00:04:32

10/28/11: Commissioner Bud Selig awards David Freese the 2011 World Series MVP trophy presented by Chevrolet

Freese caps stellar playoffs with Series MVP

Cards slugger also wins NLCS MVP, sets postseason RBI mark

By Evan Drellich / MLB.com | 10/29/11 12:09 AM ET

David Freese had already become a household name after Game 6. After the Cardinals' third baseman doubled in a pair of runs in the first inning of Game 7 on Friday night, it was a done deal.

The 28-year-old who grew up in a St. Louis suburb was named the 2011 World Series Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet on Friday night following the Cards' 6-2 win over the Rangers, accepting the hardware in front of the hometown crowd at Busch Stadium. It was a crowning individual achievement after Freese helped secure the franchise's National League-record 11th title.

"This means everything," said Freese. "Just from the beginning, to get drafted, then the Cardinals seeing something from me, it working out for me to get traded over here, the excitement of my friends and family and everybody around me."

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