The Minnesota Twins victory over the Detroit Tigers in a tiebreaker playoff game Tuesday officially concluded Major League Baseballs 2009 regular season. And for the second year in a row, Jacoby Ellsbury is the stolen-bases champion of the American League.

Ellsbury, a 26-year-old Central Oregon native from Madras and the starting center fielder for the Boston Red Sox, finished the season with 70 stolen bases. Thats 10 more than AL runner-up Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays and nine more than National League leader Michael Bourn of the Houston Astros.

Boston, runner-up in the AL East Division and the American League wild-card team, opens the 2009 postseason Thursday night in Los Angeles against the Angels, champions of the AL West, in the first game of a best-of-five Division Series.

Ellsbury posted some big numbers for the Red Sox in his second full big-league season. In addition to his 70 stolen bases (in 82 attempts), he collected a team-leading 188 hits in 153 games and finished with a batting average of .301. He hit 27 doubles and eight home runs, and his 10 triples tied Minnesotas Denard Span for most in the American League.

A left-handed hitter, Ellsbury finished with an on-base percentage of .355. He also scored 94 runs and knocked in 60.

Ellsbury is appearing in the postseason with the Red Sox for the third year in a row. A late-season call-up in 2007, he helped the Sox win the AL pennant and then batted .438 in Bostons four-game World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.