The Baseball Decathlon (07/17)
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July 17, 2013 What You Need to KnowThe AL Comes Up Aces
The All-Star Game Takeaway Matt Harvey, who somehow retained a good deal of anonymity despite a first half that should have made him the toast of town, tossed two scoreless innings for the National League. But his efforts, and those of every other hurler who toed the rubber for senior circuit, were in vain. By the time Mariano Rivera got the ball in the top of the eighth, the American League was up, 3-0. And neither Rivera nor Joe Nathan—the top two closers on the active saves leaderboard with 638 and 328, respectively—gave Bruce Bochy’s squad an opening to climb back in the final two frames. Rivera faced three batters in his 14th and final trip to the All-Star Game, and he retired all of them, sandwiching an Allen Craig lineout between groundouts by the Brewers’ two All-Stars, Jean Segura and Carlos Gomez. With the clean, 16-pitch appearance, the 43-year-old Rivera left behind a near-flawless Midsummer Classic legacy: nine innings, one unearned run, five hits, no walks, five strikeouts, and this year’s Most Valuable Player award. While some questioned Jim Leyland’s risk-averse decision to have Rivera earn a hold in the eighth rather than a save in the ninth—lest the National League tee off against Nathan, Glen Perkins, or Steve Delabar—Rivera, gracious as always, praised the Tigers skipper for assuring him of a trip to the mound. FOX color broadcaster Tim McCarver, for whom Wednesday also marked the end of an era, put his stamp on the contest by reciting the lyrics to the immortal entrance song used by the closer with whom he will leave the game. The Deadspin link above takes you to a video clip in which Timothy Burke combined McCarver’s spoken-word Metallica rendition with another of the night’s most entertaining moments. Prince Fielder led off the top of the ninth inning with a triple that skidded past Gomez in right field, motoring around the bases for his first three-bagger since May 31, 2012. Fielder would not score, but the American League’s three-run advantage was plenty of cushion for Nathan, who notched two strikeouts while shutting the door. Leyland’s bunch went down quietly in the second and third innings after a first-inning scare—for Harvey, who had to navigate through a two-on, no-out jam, and for the Yankees, whose most valuable position player, Robinson Cano, took a fastball from the Mets flamethrower off what appeared to be the side of the knee. X-rays showed only a quadriceps contusion for Cano, and Harvey escaped unscathed. Diamondbacks lefty Patrick Corbin, who took the loss, was not so fortunate. Miguel Cabrera greeted him with a double to begin the fourth, advanced to third on a single by Chris Davis, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista. David Ortiz hit into an inning-ending double play, one of four turned by the home team, but that run was all the American League would need. It was not, however, all that the American League would get. The top of the fifth, pitched by Cliff Lee, began much like the top of the fourth—with a leadoff double, this time by Adam Jones. The Orioles’ center fielder moved to third on a single by Joe Mauer and scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of teammate J.J. Hardy. The American League closed out the scoring with a superfluous insurance run in the top of the eighth, notching three hits off of Craig Kimbrel, who last permitted that many in a game on April 24. Salvador Perez and Jhonny Peralta began the frame with singles, and while a 6-3 twin killing induced from pinch-hitter Torii Hunter nearly got the Braves’ closer out of the inning, Jason Kipnis had no intention of letting that happen. The Indians’ second baseman, a .329/.413/.581 hitter since April 29, roped a double to left to bring home Perez with the game’s third run. Bochy’s bats scuffled from beginning to end, notching only three hits—singles by Carlos Beltran and David Wright to go with a double by Paul Goldschmidt—and a walk while striking out eight times. American League starter Max Scherzer worked a clean first, and Chris Sale followed suit in the second and third, earning the win at the official scorer’s discretion. The 3-0 blanking marked just the third time in All-Star Game history that the National League had been held scoreless; the others were a 12-0 rout at Fenway Park in 1946 and a 2-0 contest at Wrigley Field in 1990. The American League halted a three-year National League winning streak and exacted revenge for last year’s 8-0 drubbing at Kauffman Stadium, earning home-field advantage for the winner of its pennant. As might be expected of a contest in which only three players crossed the plate, the men on the mound stole the show. Starters Felix Hernandez, Matt Moore, Clayton Kershaw, and Jose Fernandez joined Scherzer, Sale, and Harvey in tossing zeros onto the Citi Field scoreboard. All of them, along with relievers Greg Holland, Brett Cecil, Delabar, and Aroldis Chapman, are on the right side of 30. As the old guard, led by Rivera, departs, there is a tide of young hurlers ready to capture the spotlight in the All-Star Games of the future. WYNTK will return on Friday with a preview of the weekend’s games. It will resume its regular schedule on Monday.
Daniel Rathman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @danielrathman
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Not that there was a slam-dunk obvious winner who could've screamed "robbery!" last night, but handing Rivera the MVP award was a joke and yet another endless example of the media running their awards voting by "stories" instead of "results."
If Rivera had come in with runners on and gone through the middle of the order to get out of it, fine. Facing three substitutes in the 7-8-9 spots with a 3-0 lead in the 8th, however, as compared to, say, Chris Sale pitching 2 perfect IP against the starting lineup in a 0-0 game demonstrates this was virtually a rigged outcome as long as he got into the game.
Nothing against Rivera, everybody likes him, but where is the fairness in the process...especially since it supposedly "counts"?
Is this a case where we really need fairness? While the game as a whole may "count", is there any reason to believe that the choice of the game's MVP does?
I freely admit this is not a travesty or anything close, but I'm more concerned with the "we'll twist the results to fit the story" attitude it demonstrates and which has dominated awards voting that really does count for far too long--and that is why I thought the point needed to be made.
I have no real problem, per se, with the MVP going to Rivera. As you say, no one else could really cry foul.
However, it is just another example that the ASG is a bogus piece of feel-good PR crap. Have you ever noticed that Bud Selig's initials are BS? (Yes, I know, Bud is not his real name)