All-Star Game MVP Alex Rodriguez
On Friday night, the National Division defeated the American Division 3-2 at Jackalope Stadium in the 18th Annual DTBL All-Star Game. In a game full of missed chances, the National All-Stars pulled out a little small ball to scratch out the winning run in the top of the 9th inning. It was the second straight year the National Division picked up a win despite a seemingly over-matched roster.
Justin Verlander was the starting pitcher for the National All-Stars and was opposed by Roy Halladay. Both aces pitched two scoreless innings. Verlander retired all six batters he faced. Halladay allowed the leadoff man to reach base both innings, but prevented those runners from scoring, which became a theme of the game for both teams. The game was scoreless through four innings.
Dan Haren took the mound for the American Division in the fifth and got knocked around, but was also betrayed by his defense. Carlos Gonzalez led off the inning with a single to right and advanced to second when Jose Bautista had trouble fielding the ball. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored the first run of the game on a double by Alex Rodriguez. Two batters later, Jose Reyes lined a hit into center to score Rodriguez. He also moved up to second on a booted ball by center fielder Curtis Granderson. Jacoby Ellsbury then singled to left, but Reyes was inexplicably unable to score from second on a single with two outs. So the National All-Stars settled for a 2-0 lead. If you take a look at the box score, it says both runs were unearned, however I believe this is incorrect. Based on the sequence of events, both runs would have scored anyway if the errors had not been made, so they should have been earned runs. Chalk that up as a bug in OOTP.
The National lead didn’t last long. Kings pitcher Tommy Hanson quickly gave back the two runs his Kings teammates knocked in in the top half of the fifth. Brian McCann starting the frame with a double and scored on a two run home run to right center by Granderson. So after trading pairs of runs in the 5th, the game was tied at 2.
The next three innings were filled with missed opportunities, especially for the American All-Stars. In both the 6th and 7th innings, they had runners on first and second with nobody out and failed to score. Again in the 8th, they had two men on with one out, but the inning ended when Brian McCann hit into a double play. He had done the same thing in his previous at bat in the 6th. Prior to those at bats, he had been an early contender for the game’s MVP award with a pair of hits and his throw outs of Reyes and Ellsbury on stolen base attempts early in the game.
The ninth inning featured something you don’t see very often in an All-Star game: a sacrifice bunt. Drew Storen was pitching for the American Division and surrendered hits to David Ortiz and Matt Holliday to start the inning. Then Brandon Phillips came up and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. Alex Rodriguez took advantage of the opportunity and hit a sacrifice fly to score Ortiz and gave the National Division a 3-2 lead. It was Rodriguez’s second RBI of the game. Brian Wilson and his beard then came into the game in the bottom of the 9th to pick up the save. He allowed a one out walk, but retired the next two hitters to secure the win for the National team.
Although OOTP disagreed, Rodriguez was a pretty easy choice as the game’s MVP. He was involved in all three National runs, knocking in two and scoring the third. Not bad for a guy with a bum knee who probably won’t play in a real game for at least another month or so. Cole Hamels picked up the win thanks to his scoreless 8th inning. Drew Storen took the loss and Brian Wilson earned the save.
Some interesting stats from the game. 11 leadoff batters reached base safely, but only three of them wound up scoring. The National squad put the first man on in six innings, while the American team did it five times. With numbers like those, you would have expected this to be a very high scoring game. But both teams hit into a pair of double plays to kill some of those rallies. Also, there were a lot of strike outs with men on base. National batters whiffed 11 times; 7 for the American All-Stars. Three different American players left at least four men on base with their at bats: McCann (4), Troy Tulowitzki (4) and Rickie Weeks (5). As a team, they stranded 11 men on base to end innings.
I think the live video streaming of the game went very well. I know from my standpoint, it was a lot easier being able to describe the action through speech rather than having to type it all. In addition to the three active participants, I know we had at least one other onlooker. Hopefully you all enjoyed it as well. I am quite certain we will try something similar again next year. Feel free to check out the archived video which is available on the LiveStream channel. Thanks to everyone for showing up on Friday night!
