{"id":751,"date":"2014-07-23T20:55:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T03:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=751"},"modified":"2014-07-23T21:00:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T04:00:54","slug":"american-pitchers-prevail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=751","title":{"rendered":"American Pitchers Prevail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/452406960?et=TGcsGAy9TCF0n_oLFuWCKA&amp;sig=XkE3y1yA8yBEBk_-5N56VxU1ry4MbYrw85UWxZ2kHFo=\" width=\"330\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn a season where pitchers have once again dominated while offense has lagged behind, it was fitting that the 21st Annual DTBL All-Star Game turned into a pitchers duel. \u00a0On Tuesday night at DK Memorial Field, home of Marc&#8217;s Mavericks, the American Division jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 3-2 victory over the National Division in the Mid-Summer Classic.<\/p>\n<p>As it turned out, there were a lot of similarities between the DTBL All-Star Game and last week&#8217;s MLB All-Star Game, especially when it came to the starting pitchers, and particularly Adam Wainwright. \u00a0Like the MLB game, Wainwright got the start for the National All-Stars and\u00a0was opposed by Felix Hernandez. \u00a0And in similar fashion to his performance last week, things didn&#8217;t go that well for Wainwright. \u00a0In the top of the first inning, he promptly allowed singles to Yasiel Puig and Troy Tulowitzki to start the game. \u00a0Both would later score on RBI singles by Paul Goldschmidt and Jose Bautista. \u00a0So the American Division opened up a quick 2-0 lead before King Felix took the mound. \u00a0No truth to the rumors that Wainwright was laying in pipe shots to the American hitters. \u00a0Clayton Kershaw relieved Wainwright in the second, but he too was greeted by some quick hits. \u00a0Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler started the second with singles. \u00a0Martinez scored on a one out double by Miguel Cabrera. \u00a0Kershaw was then able to shut the door, but the American squad already had a 3-0 lead after an inning and a half. \u00a0Meanwhile, Hernandez was much more effective in his two innings. \u00a0He retired the side in order in the first and kept the National All-Stars off the board in the second despite a pair of hits.<\/p>\n<p>After the second inning, the pitchers on both sides went into cruise control, racking up strikeouts and extinguishing a few mild scoring threats. \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t until the sixth inning when the next serious scoring chance popped up. \u00a0Jonathan Papelbon surrendered a single and a double to put two American runners in scoring position with just one out. \u00a0But Trevor Rosenthal relieved him and struck out the only two hitters he faced to keep the score 3-0. \u00a0This appeared to be a potential turning point in the game, particularly with what happened next in the bottom of the sixth. \u00a0Facing Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a one out single. \u00a0Then, Mike Trout followed with a two run blast to left to cut the National deficit to a single run. \u00a0Sean Doolittle proceeded to extend the streak of American hitters going down on strikes as he struck out the side in the top of the seventh. \u00a0Momentum seemed to be completely on the National side at that point.<\/p>\n<p>But that momentum would not continue. \u00a0No hitters reached base in the 7th or 8th for either team. \u00a0The American All-Stars handed the ball to Craig Kimbrel to protect a one run lead in the ninth, facing Trout to start the inning. \u00a0He induced a ground out from Trout before walking Freddie Freeman. \u00a0But a double play ball off the bat of Brandon Moss sealed the deal as the American Division held on for a 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n<p>Pitchers dominated not only in keeping runs off the board, but also in compiling a ridiculous number of strikeouts. \u00a0The National pitchers somehow fanned 16 hitters in a losing cause. \u00a0The American pitchers weren&#8217;t short on punch-outs either. \u00a0They had 10 of their own for a game total of 26. \u00a0I only have easy access to the box scores from the last 10 All-Star Games, so I can&#8217;t confirm any ASG records. \u00a0However, I&#8217;m not aware of a single team strikeout performance greater than the National&#8217;s 16. \u00a0But believe it or not, 26 is NOT the combined record. \u00a0Just last year, the teams combined for 29 strikeouts (15 and 14 each)! \u00a0So apparently these absurd K totals are now an All-Star Game trend.<\/p>\n<p>Felix Hernandez recorded the win on the strength of his two scoreless innings. \u00a0Adam Wainwright took the loss. \u00a0Craig Kimbrel recorded the save. \u00a0OOTP inexplicably named Sean Doolittle as the Player of the Game, despite only pitching one inning for the losing team. \u00a0So we had to overrule that selection. \u00a0Those present at the game selected Moonshiners second baseman Ian Kinsler as the 2014 DTBL All-Star Game MVP. \u00a0Kinsler recorded a game high 3 hits in his 4 at bats. \u00a0Interestingly, this is Kinsler&#8217;s second DTBL ASG MVP award. \u00a0He also received that honor back in 2009 when he hit a key three run homer off Johan Santana to spark an American victory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/allstar14\/box_scores\/game_box_1.html\">Click here<\/a> to view the game box score.<\/p>\n<p>Congrats to Charlie on leading the American Division to the victory! \u00a0It was fun, despite being on the losing side. \u00a0Too bad I won&#8217;t be able to get revenge next year since there is no chance I&#8217;ll be managing the National Division again in &#8217;15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a season where pitchers have once again dominated while offense has lagged behind, it was fitting that the 21st Annual DTBL All-Star Game turned into a pitchers duel. \u00a0On Tuesday night at DK Memorial Field, home of Marc&#8217;s Mavericks, the American Division jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 3-2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-game","category-moonshiners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","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=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}