{"id":1085,"date":"2017-07-17T19:48:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T02:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2017-07-19T17:32:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T00:32:03","slug":"harper-stars-in-national-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1085","title":{"rendered":"Harper Stars in National Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/817559340?et=TmpcYQgeSHFUsBwKaDyPVQ&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=LJzpIPJrSmYbj3Zeu8CO07d7qcjnOu1Z5iqGkaO_cFA=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"416\" height=\"277\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nStrikeouts have been a prevailing factor in DTBL All-Star Games basically dating back to when we started using OOTP to sim the games. \u00a0However, whiffs have really been kicked into overdrive the past five Mid-Summer Classics. \u00a0All previous iterations pale in comparison to what happened at The Landing Pad, home of Charlie&#8217;s Thunder Choppers, in the 24th annual DTBL All-Star Game. \u00a036 batters were retired via strikeouts, obliterating the old record of 30 set two years ago. \u00a0National Division pitchers struck out 19 hitters while opposing American hurlers racked up 17 K&#8217;s. \u00a0The National All-Stars got the better results from balls that were actually put in play though. \u00a0Bryce Harper reached base five times, leading the National squad to a 5-2 victory.<\/p>\n<p>While 36 strikeouts is kind of ridiculous, it isn&#8217;t completely unbelievable when you look at the season stats of the pitchers on these two rosters. \u00a0And there are a fair number of All-Star hitters who strikeout at very high rates as well. \u00a0Yet the end results went way beyond anything that should have been expected. \u00a0This game was a BABIP inflator with the teams combining to hit .483 on balls in play. \u00a0Probably a good thing, or runs would have been really scarce.<\/p>\n<p>The starting pitching match-up was identical to the MLB All-Star Game last Tuesday: \u00a0Chris Sale for the American Division against Max Scherzer for the National Division. \u00a0Both pitched two scoreless innings in this game, but Scherzer was far more dominant. \u00a0He retired all six hitters he faced, four via strikeouts. \u00a0Sale managed to scatter three hits and a walk in his two scoreless frames. \u00a0In his second inning, the first three batters recorded hits, but Khris Davis threw out Ryan Zimmerman at the plate on a Ryon Healy single to keep the National All-Stars off the board for the time being.<\/p>\n<p>The American Division drew first blood in the top of the third when Salvador Perez homered off Clayton Kershaw. \u00a0Immediately following that, Kershaw allowed consecutive doubles to Corey Seager and Marcell Ozuna, which gave the American team a 2-0 lead. \u00a0That score would hold until the fifth. \u00a0Dallas Keuchel retired the first two hitters in the top of the fifth, but then ran into trouble. \u00a0Bryce Harper walked for the second of three times in the game. \u00a0Mike Trout then knocked him in with a double to deep right-center. \u00a0That cut the American lead in half heading to the second half of the game.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most pivotal moments of the game came in the bottom of the fifth. \u00a0The American All-Stars were looking to break things open against Carlos Martinez. \u00a0They loaded the bases thanks to a pair of walks and a Trea Turner pinch hit single. \u00a0Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate looking to unload the bases. \u00a0Instead, he grounded out to second to end the inning. \u00a0The Americans put a couple more runners on base via singles in the sixth, but that rally ended on a strikeout of Chris Owings by Corey Knebel. \u00a0The game was delayed due to rain for 66 minutes during the top of the 6th. \u00a0To the best of my recollection, this was the first rain delay in a DTBL All-Star Game. \u00a0Eventually, the game moved to the seventh with the American All-Stars still ahead 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>Greg Holland took the mound for the American Division to start the seventh. \u00a0He did not fare well. \u00a0Carlos Correa started the inning with a walk and immediately scored on a Charlie Blackmon double to tie the game. \u00a0Harper then walked yet again. \u00a0Holland managed to get Mike Trout to fly out and Aaron Judge to strikeout and was on the verge of escaping further damage. \u00a0But Jose Altuve knocked a clutch single up the middle to score the go-ahead run. \u00a0That would prove to be the difference.<\/p>\n<p>The National Division added some insurance in the ninth inning off the usually unhittable Craig Kimbrel. \u00a0Harper reached base safely for the fifth time, starting the inning with a bomb over the right field fence. \u00a0Trout made it back-to-back home runs with a 410 foot blast to left-center. \u00a0Kenley Jansen made quick work of the American team in the bottom of the ninth, striking out a pair and then getting Turner to ground out to end the game. \u00a0The National Division recorded a 5-2 victory. \u00a0Corey Knebel picked up the win, Greg Holland took the loss and Jansen earned the save.<\/p>\n<p>Bryce Harper was an easy selection as the game&#8217;s Most Valuable Player. \u00a0He reached base in all five plate appearances, going 2 for 2 with 3 walks, a home run and two runs scored. \u00a0Perhaps most notably, he did not strike out. \u00a0Very few other hitters in this game could make that claim. \u00a0Khris Davis wore the golden sombrero, striking out four times. \u00a0Another hitter with a less than spectacular game was Aaron Judge who struck out three times and hit into a double play. \u00a0Some of the top pitching performances belonged to Scherzer and his Nationals, and National Division, teammate Stephen Strasburg who combined to strike out seven batters in three innings. \u00a0On the American side, Roberto Osuna was the top pitcher, striking out all four batters he faced.<\/p>\n<p>This was the second straight victory for the National Division. \u00a0They now hold a 13-11 lead in the all-time DTBL All-Star series. \u00a0Next year will mark the 25th Anniversary of the league and the 25th All-Star Game. \u00a0Perhaps fittingly, Kevin&#8217;s Kings will have the honor of hosting that milestone game.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Box Score\" href=\"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/allstar17\/box_scores\/game_box_1.html\">Box Score<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strikeouts have been a prevailing factor in DTBL All-Star Games basically dating back to when we started using OOTP to sim the games. \u00a0However, whiffs have really been kicked into overdrive the past five Mid-Summer Classics. \u00a0All previous iterations pale in comparison to what happened at The Landing Pad, home of Charlie&#8217;s Thunder Choppers, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-game","category-darkhorses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1090,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}