Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish and Cardinals third baseman David Freese won the Final Vote campaign and have been added to the rosters for Tuesday's All-Star Game in Kansas City.
Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill finished fourth in the voting in the National League.
Darvish, a rookie sensation from Japan, beat out fellow pitchers Jake Peavy of the White Sox, Jason Hammel of the Orioles, Jonathan Broxton of the Royals and Ernesto Frieri of the Angels. A five-time All-Star in Japan, Darvish is 10-5 with a 3.59 ERA this season. He received 7.3 million votes.
Freese, last year's World Series MVP, became the NL vote leader on Tuesday when MLB announced that Chipper Jones, the leader after after the first two days of voting, was replacing Matt Kemp on the NL roster. Finishing in order behind Freese -- who garnered 8.4 million votes -- were Braves center fielder Michael Bourn, Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper and Hill.
Freese is second among NL third baseman in home runs (13) and RBIs (50), trailing only All-Star starter David Wright of the Mets. The first-time All-Star is batting .285 this season.
Fans were able to vote at MLB.com, through text message and on Twitter, with hashtag tweets in the final four hours prior to the 1 p.m. deadline counting as votes. At one point, the Diamondbacks' recommended hashtag, #FinHillVote, was the No. 1 trending topic in Phoenix.
Hill, an All-Star in 2009 while with the Blue Jays, recently made national headlines after hitting for the cycle twice in 12 days -- first on June 18 at home against the Mariners and then on June 29 in Milwaukee against Brewers -- to become just the second player in MLB history to do so twice in the same season. Babe Herman of the Brooklyn Robins accomplished the feat on May 18 and July 24, 1931.
Among NL second basemen, the 30-year-old Hill is tied for first with 11 home runs, second with a .300 average and 89 hits and third with 38 RBIs. Defensively, Hill has only three errors this season in 78 games.
