Reyes Pulled After Getting Hit To Preserve Batting Title Chances

Jose Reyes celebrated a lead-off bunt-single in the first inning-- lifting his batting average to a National League-leading .337  (technically, almost three points higher than Milwaukee's Ryan Braun's .335) in the New York Mets season finale this afternoon-- before Mets manager Terry Collins promptly removed his shortstop for a pinch-runner.

When Collins pulled Reyes, the home-crowd cheers at CitiField broke out into resounding boos.

While the manager's move almost guarantees Reyes the batting title, it didn't evoke any memories of Ted Williams's dignified pursuit of .400 when the Red Sox legend finished playing both games of a double-header after he already reached the milestone on the final day of the season 70 years ago.

Collins had hinted that he would lift his shortstop once Reyes had a higher average than his competition, but the move disappointed a lot of the fans who came to see their free-agent-to-be do it more legitimately.

Get the asterisks ready.

In what could be Reye's last at-bat in a Mets uniform, it was kind of an anti-climatic end to the player's amazing season and who was possibly the lone bright spot during the team's dismal year. 

Reyes admitted last week that he was striving to become the first Mets player to win a batting title and was routinely reminded about it.

He said he was being overwhelmed with text messages telling him what Braun did and what Braun was doing.

Braun must now go 3-for-4 in Wednesday night's game vs. Pittsburgh to pass Reyes for the title.

If Braun goes 3-for-4 and has another at-bat, do you think he'll be pulled from the game?