BALTIMORE -- For years, avid baseball fans have taken advantage of interstate highways connecting New York and Baltimore, so the warm ovation Alex Rodriguez received Sunday should not have been a total surprise.

But you didn't have to be a diehard Yankees fan to appreciate A-Rod's remarkable 2007 season, which ended in the fourth inning as Rodriguez was lifted for pinch-runner Bronson Sardinha.

Rodriguez had two hits, a run scored and an RBI in the Yankees' 10-4 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards, putting the finishing touches on his campaign. He finished batting .314 with a Major-League leading 54 home runs, 156 RBIs, 143 runs scored and a .645 slugging percentage.

"It's a year I'm proud of, just because the guys battled hard all year," Rodriguez said. "It's been the toughest year trying to get to the postseason, that's for sure. Many people kind of doubted us, and it's weird for us to be able to overcome such adversity. Me personally, I feel good about the year."

Rodriguez -- who also led the AL with 376 total bases -- became the first player in Major League history to record at least 140 runs scored, 50 home runs, 150 RBIs and 20 stolen bases in the same season.

Taking out the stolen bases statistic, Rodriguez joined elite slugging company, as only four big leaguers -- Babe Ruth (1921, 1927), Hack Wilson (1930), Jimmie Foxx (1932) and Sammy Sosa (2001) -- were able to accomplish the feat.

"Whatever you say is not enough," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "This guy was there when the bell rang. You don't realize it until he came off the field today that that was the end of his season. To have the numbers that he had put up there were more than amazing."

Torre said that Rodriguez's accomplishments were even more important to the club because of the fashion in which he contributed them.

Perhaps even more than in his 2005 AL MVP season, Rodriguez's bat helped the Yankees toward their eventual date in the AL Division Series with the Indians, including several memorable game-winning hits and walk-off home runs.

"It's about as complete an MVP season as you could find, as far as I'm concerned. I'm just a little partial to him, but I think the numbers just speak for themselves," said Torre.

"Definitely, he helped us a lot," said Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano. "He helped so much, I can't tell you about it, especially when we were struggling in the beginning. He got those walk-off home runs and those comeback games. That's something that you've got to appreciate looking at them now."

The final tallies should help to make Rodriguez a shoo-in for honors after the postseason ends, but for now, A-Rod said his focus in on taking the postseason one day at a time.

He proved ultimately successful by shutting out the critics and following that approach from the beginning of Spring Training on, and Rodriguez said he doesn't see any reason to alter it now, especially now that the stakes are about to rise.

"We'll go as far as the pitching takes us," Rodriguez said. "Hopefully everyone stays healthy and we'll see what happens."