National Division Wins Ground Battle

[Kevin]

On Saturday afternoon, the National Division All-Stars edged out the American team to pick up a 2-1 victory in the eleventh annual Dream Team Baseball League All-Star Game. A sellout crowd at DK Memorial Field, home of Marc's Mavericks, saw an unusual game in which 16 hits were recorded but not one of them went for extra bases. Even more shocking was the fact that neither team issued a walk or strike out. It was pretty much a ground ball fest from start to finish.

To give you an idea just how difficult it was for hitters to put the ball in the air, the American squad did not record an out by any other means than a ground out until Miguel Cabrera flew out in the seventh inning. There were 37 ground ball outs in the game including four double plays.

The National All-Stars scored both of their runs in the bottom of the third inning to break a scoreless tie. With one out, Aramis Ramirez singled off of Roy Oswalt. Michael Young recorded a two out single that moved Jose Guillen to third, who had reached on a fielder's choice. Then, Oswalt delivered a wild pitch allowing Guillen to score the first run of the game. Ivan Rodriguez followed that with a single to score Young and give the National team a 2-0 lead. It would prove to be all the scoring they would need.

The American hitters were simply off all day. They recorded just six hits and only had base runners in three innings. Their one run came in the top of the sixth off Joe Nathan. The American All-Stars recorded three straight singles to start the inning. Carlos Beltran reached on the first and scored on the third, an RBI single by Vladimir Guerrero. Between those was a single by Miguel Tejada. After cutting the lead in half, the American Division had runners at first and second with nobody out, but pinch hitter Todd Helton promptly hit into a double play.

Jason Schmidt was the starting pitcher for the National All-Stars and retired all six men he faced. Randy Johnson followed him and picked up the victory. The loaded National bullpen shut the door over the last three innings. Mariano Rivera retired Scott Rolen with nobody on in the ninth to end the game and pick up the save. Oswalt took the loss for the American Division.

There were no real stars offensively, but David Ortiz picked up the Most Valuable Player award for his three for four performance. He is the first All-Star MVP to win the award without recording a run batted in. Michael Young had a pair of hits and a run scored and Ivan Rodriguez had the lone National RBI. On the American side, only Carlos Beltran had multiple hits. He also scored their only run.

With the win, the National Division has now won two consecutive All-Star Games. They closed the gap in the overall series. The American Division has won six of the eleven contests.