{"id":1176,"date":"2018-07-28T08:42:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-28T15:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1176"},"modified":"2018-07-28T11:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-28T18:24:00","slug":"lindor-caps-epic-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1176","title":{"rendered":"Lindor Caps Epic Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"dEe6nVNrTupuEMsauz90yw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1000971498\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\nwindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'dEe6nVNrTupuEMsauz90yw',sig:'_cIcEcH4fU0tOgVilnz2VDQS4U27rjnDjeNUYNC2-1o=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1000971498',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nOn paper, the National Division appeared to be the stronger squad in the 25th Annual DTBL All-Star Game.\u00a0 But it took a comeback for the ages for them to prove it.\u00a0 The American Division broke out to a 7-0 lead in the game&#8217;s first two innings and maintained a six run advantage at the seventh inning stretch.\u00a0 But then the script flipped and the National All-Stars stormed back.\u00a0 Francisco Lindor completed the comeback with a go-ahead two run homer in the bottom of the 8th.\u00a0 The National Division won the silver anniversary mid-summer classic at Kings Park by a final score of 8-7.<\/p>\n<p>The game could not have gotten off to a much better start for the American Division.\u00a0 Facing Corey Kluber in the top of the first, the American team scored three runs.\u00a0 Paul Goldschmidt started the scoring with a two run home run, knocking in Jean Segura who had singled to start the game.\u00a0 Giancarlo Stanton followed the Goldschmidt blast with a single and reached third on a double by Eddie Rosario.\u00a0 Nelson Cruz knocked in Stanton on a groundout to give the American squad a three run lead before the National Division stepped to the plate against American starting pitcher Luis Severino.<\/p>\n<p>Things appeared to unravel for the National team in the top of the second with Max Scherzer on the mound.\u00a0 Whit Merrifield reached on an error by National shortstop Javy Baez.\u00a0 A Jose Ramirez single and Goldschmidt walk loaded the bases with two outs for Stanton.\u00a0 On an 0-2 pitch, Stanton launched an opposite field grand slam home run, increasing the lead to 7-0.\u00a0 All four runs were unearned.<\/p>\n<p>The American Division seemed to have this game under control.\u00a0 Severino completed two solid, scoreless innings.\u00a0 The National All-Stars did get one back in the third off of Chris Sale though, on another opposite field home run.\u00a0 Manny Machado&#8217;s blast to right cut the lead to 7-1.\u00a0 That would be it for the scoring until the seventh as both teams scattered a few hits but never really mounted any great scoring opportunities.\u00a0 In the top of the seventh, Brad Hand hit the first batter he faced, but then struck out the next three hitters to send the game to the seventh inning stretch.\u00a0 That&#8217;s when everything changed.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Kimbrel came on to pitch for the American Division and promptly walked Aaron Judge.\u00a0 Then Freddie Freeman hit yet another opposite field home run.\u00a0 Like Stanton&#8217;s grand slam, this Freeman blast came on an 0-2 pitch.\u00a0 Lindor followed with an impressive nine pitch walk.\u00a0 After a one out single by Jose Altuve, Kimbrel was relieved of his duties.\u00a0 In came Josh Hader.\u00a0 His rough week continued.\u00a0 Mookie Betts greeted Hader with a three run home run to center, capping off a five run inning that cut the American lead to one run.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Doolittle pitched a perfect top of the eighth with a pair of strikeouts, allowing the National All-Stars to maintain their momentum.\u00a0 In came Aroldis Chapman to try to protect the one run advantage.\u00a0 He did not.\u00a0 Aaron Judge reached on a walk for the second time in the game.\u00a0 With two outs and a runner on first, Lindor came up to the plate to face Chapman.\u00a0 He launched a two run homer to left, completing the epic comeback and giving the National Division an 8-7 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Kenley Jansen got the call for the National squad in the ninth and retired the side in order to close out the stunning victory for the National Division.\u00a0 Doolittle was credited with the win, Chapman took the loss and Jansen recorded the save.\u00a0 Lindor was named the game&#8217;s Most Valuable Player, mainly on the strength of his game winning homer.\u00a0 But the Demigods shortstop also played a role in the big seventh inning with a key walk.<\/p>\n<p>There were six home runs hit in the game, four for the National and two for the American.\u00a0 14 of the 15 runs in the game were knocked in on home runs.\u00a0 As has been the norm in DTBL All-Star Games in recent years, there were lots and lots of strikeouts.\u00a0 National pitchers struck out an incredible 20 American hitters.\u00a0 American pitchers recorded 11 strikeouts too.\u00a0 Amazingly, no individual hitter struck out more than twice.\u00a0 But of the 14 American hitters who played in this game, Segura was the only one who didn&#8217;t fan.<\/p>\n<p>Not to be overlooked was the impressive pitching by the National squad after the first two innings.\u00a0 In the final seven frames, National pitchers allowed just three hits, no runs, one walk and 17 strikeouts.\u00a0 The only base-runner of the final four innings for the American team was via a hit by pitch.\u00a0 Perhaps the most notable performance came from Blake Treinen, who struck out all three hitters he faced.<\/p>\n<p>This was the third straight All-Star Game victory for the National Division.\u00a0 They now hold a 14-11 lead in the all-time series.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/allstar18\/box_scores\/game_box_1.html\">Click here<\/a> to check out the box score from the 25th edition of the DTBL Al-Star Game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images On paper, the National Division appeared to be the stronger squad in the 25th Annual DTBL All-Star Game.\u00a0 But it took a comeback for the ages for them to prove it.\u00a0 The American Division broke out to a 7-0 lead in the game&#8217;s first two innings and maintained a six run [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-game","category-demigods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176","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=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}