8:35pm After a Mike Trout double and Robinson Cano HBP, Matt Harvey retired Miguel Cabrera, Chris Davis, and Joey Bautista, in arguably the most lethal top five of any batting order ever. Cano's looked pretty bad after getting hit on the knee, which is particularly worrisome for myself as his fantasy owner. So help me baseball gods that he is okay.
8:36 Ah, Tim McCarver and Joe Buck just referenced Pedro and the 1999 ASG at Fenway, where he struck out 5 of 6 in two innings of work. Arguably the most exciting beginning to an All-Star Game, and I was there to see it. But damn, do I wish I was old enough to really appreciate it.8:45 The top of the second just ended, and I might have seen two pitches. I was looking up running diaries that Bill Simmons has written over the years. He's the head honcho as far as running diaries go, and I can only hope to aspire to the level that he is at. Still no score heading to the bottom of the second.
8:46 Vicki told me to say hi. I'm not sure if this "hi" is directed at the running diary, or anybody reading the running diary, or me, but hi.
8:48 The best part about that AT&T commercial wasn't the part where the adult's mind was blown, it was where that kid couldn't think of a number larger than.....ten.
8:49 Miguel Cabrera just made a moderately impressive play at third base. I needed a second after seeing that.
8:50 Chris Sale's pitching motion looks like it hurts his entire body with every single pitch. Has he been getting tips from Elastigirl?
8:55 That Miguel Cabrera "Most Interesting Man" commercial was pretty cool....too bad he BEAT HIS WIFE.
8:58 The FOX broadcasting crew is a joke. I'm surprised it took me this long to announce it, but what the hell...in better news, the fact that Ken Rosenthal mentioned Robinson Cano's injury in the same segment as Max Scherzer's orange cleats makes me feel better about him getting hit by a 97mph fastball.
9:06 There has never been a bad "Sounds of the Game." NEVER.
9:17 Second time through for Cabrera/Davis/Bautista and it starts with a double and a single. Runners on the corners for Joey Bats, with the best chance so far to put a run on the board.
9:18 And with that, the American League takes a 1-0 lead on a Joey Bautista sac fly.
9:25 Carlos Beltran breaks up the combined perfect game by the AL after Scherzer, Sale, and Felix Hernandez combined to retire the first ten National Leaguers. Beltran might be the epitome of the why-is-this-person-still-good club.
9:31 These Chevrolet truck commercials seem to paint the perfect idea of what being a man really is....how wrong I think they are...
9:38 The AL is in the same spot here in the 5th as they were in the 4th, runners on the corners with nobody out. J.J. Hardy steps up against Cliff Lee, in a game that seems to be now less about the festivities and more about the baseball.
9:40 A fielder's choice for Hardy plates Adam Jones, and the AL takes a 2-0 lead, scoring as many runs tonight as they have in the past three All-Star Games combined, losing all three.
9:48 Wait...Tim McCarver just said that Joe Buck will be sitting next to someone else at next year's All-Star Game....does this mean...no...he's retiring?!?!?! I HOPE THIS IS TRUE!!!
9:50 That was a cool commercial until the part where it was for the new FOX Sports Network station.
9:52 I'm absolutely amazed at all of these athletes who are younger than I am doing all of these incredible things. Jose Fernandez, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Mike Trout (well, four months older than me) are a few names just in baseball. That's not to mention half of the NBA.
10:00 Reading some of these tweets about Tim McCarver are absolutely hilarious. My favorite? "Hell is commentated by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver."
10:01 Michael Cuddyer might be one of only a handful of All-Stars with visibly gray hair, as he draws a four-pitch walk from none other than Grant Balfour.
10:04 Found a .gif of that fan who ran on the field getting tackled. Word on the street is that he did it because his tweet was retweeted a thousand times, and he said that he'd do it if that happened. This is what you get for listening to the rest of the world.
10:09 After six full, it's the American League holding on to their 2-0 lead. Part of me just wishes that everyone could skip the 7th and 8th, because there are absolutely no signs of anything besides people getting out happening.
10:16 The 6-4-3 double play is one of the nicest things in baseball. That, a triple, and a three-pitch strikeout.
10:17 Aroldis Chapman throwing 101mph as he strikes out Adam Jones....wow.
10:18 Thanks to the graphic just displayed, we've all been reminded that each run scored in tonight's game came on an out. What exciting baseball for everyone who doesn't enjoy pitching.
10:20 Seriously, Marc Anthony? Or whoever made the decision to repeat half of God Bless America. I've come to realize that one of the things I hate the most is when people take something like God Bless America or the Star-Spangled Banner and make it something completely different from the way it should be. That, and people who think that they have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but in reality, they just don't like things being out of place. THIS is what OCD looks like.
10:24 WHO SAID MANNY MACHADO COULDN'T PLAY THIRD BASE?!!?!? WHO!?!?
10:27 And with our first pitching change during an inning, the game will now end at 11:46pm, where the 7th-9th innings will take about an hour and a half to complete. At least Tony LaRussa isn't managing the NL.
10:32 Seriously though, it bothers me that these commercial breaks take longer than the amount of time the pitchers actually spend on the mound. Speeding up the game has nothing to do with the actual game itself, and everything with how much money people have to make from it. It is not hard to enforce a couple of rules and everything would be exactly as it still is, minus about ten to fifteen minutes every game. Which is significant.
10:34 See? It took ten minutes for three separate pitchers to get three separate outs, all with only one baserunner. This is what's wrong with the MLB. I guarantee that the three pitchers spent less time on the mound than we spent watching commercials. In fact, I'm going to tweet about this in addition to being outwardly pissed off here.
10:38 Updates on the kid who ran on the field...this link has his entire sequence of tweets leading up to the whole thing. Definitely worth a read.
10:40 It must be good to be Mariano Rivera this year. He's definitely getting the "going-out" party of his life, and I'm so excited to be able to be at Fenway for Rivera's last game in Boston in September. By far my favorite Rivera moment was on Opening Day at Fenway in 2005, where he tipped his cap to 38,000 fans cheering for him.10:43 I'll say it now - definitely not a fan of teams putting their logo behind the pitcher's rubber. Especially if it's going to be off-centered.
10:44 Love "Sweet Caroline," but please leave it for Fenway. Especially with Neil Diamond not singing it live. Again, love the song, but only at Fenway. A Jason Kipnis RBI double makes it 3-0 in favor of the American League in the top of the 8th.
10:48 Halfway through the song, and I feel like I'm at some bad birthday party for a seven-year-old. I wish there was a better way to describe this feeling, but I just don't have the mastery of it right now. Hopefully Bill Simmons has something to say about this.
10:50 Honestly couldn't tell you which player from the Houston Astros is here tonight. I'm not even going to pretend I know who. Same goes for whoever is here from the San Diego Padres.
10:51 Damn. What a great moment, Rivera running onto the field and literally everybody with two hands is cheering for him. Mets fans, Red Sox fans, people who don't know what's happening...absolutely spectacular.
10:52 That being said, five hundred points to Gryffindor for anybody who can name who Rivera throws to on a regular basis for the Yankees.
10:54 On a separate note, there hasn't been a pitch thrown in ten minutes.
10:56 As much as I've come to detest the Yankees over the years, they provide this weird sense of baseball nostalgia, or appreciation for my place in baseball history, or some weird thing like that. Rivera, Jeter, Torre...those three (more so than Pettitte/Posada) seem to be in a class each their own, and I can't think of three people who have gone through it together.
11:01 A 1-2-3 inning for Rivera, and he walks off the field the same way he walked on, to a standing ovation.
11:07 Yes, that's Prince Fielder who just hit a triple in the 9th inning of the All-Star Game. The same Prince Fielder who could have just as easily been thrown out on a 4-6-5 from the right field warning track.
11:09 If Rivera is getting this solemn at the All-Star Game, mentioning the fans, players, and coaches, I can't wait to see how it's going to be at Yankee Stadium and at Fenway.
11:14 Fielder gets stranded at third, and the American League takes a 3-0 lead to the bottom of the 9th. Not sure who is up for the National League, but the way this game has been going, they could trot out Paul Bunyan and he would still make an out. Actually, I wonder what the starting lineup would be for fictional characters. Bunyan has to be batting cleanup, right?
11:18 Joe Nathan strikes out the first batter of the ninth, and then promptly begins picking his nose violently.
11:20 Two outs remain in the 9th and this is the first time I mention home-field advantage in the World Series. It'd be cool if the American League had it, in case the Red Sox make it to the World Series, or something. McCutchen strikes out, and Paul Goldschmidt is the NL's last chance.
11:21 A first-pitch double puts one on for the National League, and Pedro Alvarez gets a shot next. The game still seems to be in the hands of the AL - if the NL comes back, we might have to wonder if there's some larger society that's fixing all of the major sports, instead of just the NBA.
11:25 A pop-up to Jason Kipnis ends it tonight, and the AL picks up the All-Star Game victory in three hours and six minutes. I can't think of too much to say about the game, since I've been talking about it for the past three hours, so I will close here. Thanks for reading along and staying with this severely long but always enjoyable blog post.
Chris Stewart tends to catch for him right now...but we've also seen Romine and Cervelli this season...how'd I do?
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll take your word for it, you being a Yankees fan and all
ReplyDelete