NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Jeff Kent of the San Francisco Giants beat out teammate Barry Bonds for the National League's Most Valuable Player Award today, becoming the first second baseman in 16 years to capture the coveted prize.

Kent, whose clutch hitting helped lead the Giants to the NL West title, was named first on 22 of the 32 ballots submitted by two members of the Baseball Writers Association of America from each NL city. Kent had five second-place mentions, four thirds and one fourth to earn 392 points and become the first second baseman to win an MVP award in either league since Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs in 1984.

Bonds, a three-time winner of the award, had six first-place votes and was selected from second to ninth on 26 other ballots but finished a distant second with 279 points.

In what was expected to be a close vote, Kent was surprised at his margin of victory.

"I really didn't care much what the spread was, but I'm floored that people across the country have recognized the Giants and most specifically recognized me," Kent said.

Catcher Mike Piazza of the New York Mets finished third with three first-place votes and 271 points. Outfielder Jim Edmonds of the St. Louis Cardinals was fourth with 208 points and Colorado first baseman Todd Helton received the other first-place vote and was fifth with 198 points.

The honor for Kent completes a San Francisco Bay Area sweep of the MVP Award. Jason Giambi of the Oakland Athletics won the American League Award on Wednesday.

"It's very much a pleasurable experience to be recognized by the writers association and to have the backing of a quality organization like the Giants," Kent said.

Rounding out the top 10 vote-getters were Vladimir Guerrero of Montreal, Jeff Bagwell of Houston, Andruw Jones of Atlanta, Sammy Sosa of Chicago and Garry Sheffield of Los Angeles. In all, 22 players received at least one vote, but Kent, Bonds and Piazza were the only players named on every ballot.

It marked the 11th time that two members from the same team ran 1-2 in the voting. The last time was in 1990 when Bonds, then with the Pittsburgh Pirates, beat out teammate Bobby Bonilla. The Giants also had a 1-2 finish in 1989 when Kevin Mitchell won over Will Clark.

Kent is the fifth San Francisco player to win, joining Bonds (1993), Mitchell (1989), Willie McCovey (1969) and Willie Mays (1965). Mays (1954) and Carl Hubbell (1933, '36) also won MVPs when the team was based in New York.

"There is no way I can compare myself with those guys," Kent said. "It's a true honor to mentioned in the same sentence."

Kent ranked among the NL leaders in most major offensive categories. He was fourth in RBI (125), fifth in batting average (.334) and hits (196), sixth in on-base average (.424) and extra base hits (81), seventh in total bases (350) and triples (7), eighth in doubles (41) and runs (114) and 10th in slugging percentage (.596).

He is the only second baseman over the past 51 years to drive in 120 or more runs in a season and he has done it three times.

Kent has 116 homers and 475 RBI over the last four seasons and this year set career highs in batting average and home runs. The 32-year-old second baseman hit .360 or better in three of the six months and was often at his best when Bonds was struggling.

In the field, Kent committed just 10 errors this season.

Bonds was the only player to receive MVP votes in each year during the 1990s and has now started a new streak. He had 17 homers and 41 RBI over the final two months and his overall on-base percentage of .400 and slugging percentage of .688 were among the leaders. Bonds also drew 117 walks and scored 129 times in 143 games.

Piazza appeared to be a favorite for the MVP trophy, but he slowed down in September and finished with a .324 batting average, 38 home runs and 113 RBI.

Helton flirted with hitting .400 and finished with a .372 average, 42 homers and 147 RBI. But his candidacy likely was hurt by a mediocre 82-80 record for the Rockies.

Voting members of the BBWAA are asked to select 10 players for MVP and list them in order of preference. Votes are awarded on 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for votes from first through 10th.

It was the second major award this postseason for the Giants. Dusty Baker was named NL Manager of the Year last week.