Notes

LITTLE ROCK — GIANTS

Cabrera disqualified

NEW YORK - Melky Cabrera lost the right to play baseball by failing a drug test and now he has given up his chance to win the National League batting title.

Cabrera was disqualified from the NL batting honor at his own request when Major League Baseball and the players’ association agreed Friday to a one-season-only change in the rule governing the individual batting, slugging and on-base percentage champions.

Serving a 50-game suspension, the San Francisco Giants slugger entered Friday with a league-leading .346 average, seven points ahead of Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen. Cabrera, the All-Star Game MVP, was suspended Aug. 15 for a positive test for testosterone and is missing the final 45 games of the regular season.

Cabrera had 501 plate appearances, one short of the required minimum, but would have won the title under section 10.22(a) of the Official Baseball Rules if an extra hitless at-bat were added to his average and he still finished ahead. With Friday’s agreement, that provision won’t apply this year to a player who “served a drug suspension for violating the Joint Drug Program.”

The process for the change was set in motion Wednesday evening when Cabrera’s agent, Seth Levinson, sent an e-mail to union head Michael Weiner with an attached letter from Cabrera in English and Spanish.

“I ask the Players Association to take the necessary steps, in conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner, to remove my name from for the National League batting title,” Cabrera wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

“To be plain, I personally have no wish to win an award that would widely be seen as tainted, and I believe that it would be far better for the remaining contenders to compete for that distinction,” Cabrera wrote. “So too, the removal of my name from consideration will permit me to focus on my goal of working hard upon my return to baseball so that I may be able to win that distinction in a season played in full compliance with league rules. To be plain, I plan to work hard to vindicate myself in that very manner.”

Lawyers from Major League Baseball and the union finished drafting the change Friday.

Baseball rules state a player needs to average a minimum 3.1 plate appearances for each of his team’s games to become a batting, slugging or on-base percentage champion. But the last sentence of 10.22(a) states: “Notwithstanding the foregoing requirement of minimum appearances at the plate, any player with fewer than the required number of plate appearances whose average would be the highest, if he were charged with the required number of plate appearances shall be awarded the batting, slugging or on-base percentage championship, as the case may be.”

The provision came into play for the first time in 1996, when San Diego’s Tony Gwynn won his third consecutive NL batting title, and his seventh overall. Gwynn hit .353 in 498 plate appearances and won when four hitless at bats were added and his average still topped that of Colorado’s Ellis Burks, Gwynn’s closest pursuer at .344.

As the agreement is worded, the only way Cabrera would qualify for the batting title is if the Giants had a rain out and played only 161 games, in which case 499 plate appearances would be sufficient. Such a situation is unlikely this late in the season.

BREWERS

Torrealba acquired

WASHINGTON - The Milwaukee Brewers acquired veteran catcher Yorvit Torrealba from Toronto for cash considerations.

The team announced the deal Friday.

In 59 games with the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers this season, the 34-year old Torrealba is batting .233 with 4 home runs and 14 RBI.

Milwaukee, winners of five consecutive, are 21/2 games behind St. Louis for the final National League wild-card berth. Milwaukee opened a four-game series against the Washington Nationals on Friday.

REDS

Baker out another game

CINCINNATI - Cincinnati Reds Manager Dusty Baker missed a third consecutive game Friday because of problems caused by an irregular heartbeat.

Doctors in Chicago advised Baker, 63, to spend one more night in a hospital there before traveling to Cincinnati for a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Reds’ clinching number was down to one after the St. Louis Cardinals lost Friday in Chicago 5-4 in 11 innings, setting up the possibility that Cincinnati could end up celebrating later in the night without its manager.