It was just Kansas City’s night.
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Eric Hosmer went 2-for-3 with a home run and 2 RBI to become the first Royals player since Bo Jackson in 1989 to win All-Star Game MVP honors.
Later, the Atlanta Braves play for the last time at 20-year-old Turner Field (Oct. 2 vs. Detroit) before moving to a suburban ballpark.
Never once, in the six seasons and 575 games they had started together as big league teammates, had Hosmer and Perez homered in the same inning of any game – regular season or postseason.
A 96-mile-per-hour fastball down low and on the inside corner is nothing to be ashamed of, but Bryant ripped it into the left field seats in an otherwise snappy and clean first inning for Sale. Hosmer, though, took the role of insurance man in the third inning and drove in Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion, finishing 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of RBI.
Within the last half-century, the audience for the All-Star Game peaked at 36.3 million when ABC aired it back in 1976.
Dumb, I know, but that’s the way Major League Baseball wants things, even if the bulk of baseball fans don’t. Prior to this season, the Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said he would call it quits at the end of the year; Tuesday night’s game in San Diego was all about the man affectionately known as Big Papi. Injury replacements and the “one-representative-from-each-MLB-team” rule further complicate the selections, but the bottom line is that the public has free rein over who will start and, thus, will play in the All-Star Game-many of the reserve players will not get a chance to actually play in the event. Hosmer is six home runs shy of his career best (19) and 49 runs batted in away from tying his career high (98).
But current players try to think only about the game in front of them.
“That’s something we don’t really discuss very often”, Arrieta said.
The San Francisco Giants entered the break at 57-33, the best record in baseball, and appear headed for yet another even-year World Series appearance. While there are many fans who do preserve the integrity of the game by voting for those who truly deserve it, there are just as many “ballot-stuffers” who will vote only for players from their favorite team.
“It’s insane to me, just because of all the superstars in this game, and I do not classify myself as one of them”, he said.
With an NL ballpark hosting for the second year in a row in a streak of at least four, the AL wore white uniforms, hit last and used the Padres clubhouse on the first-base side.
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It marked the fourth straight season the Junior Circuit won the Midsummer Classic, earning the AL home-field advantage in this year’s World Series.
