Atlanta Braves: Highlights from the 2019 MLB All-Star game in Cleveland

2. Pitching Dominated on Both Sides

While the offenses weren’t kept off the board, they were definitely held in check for the most part.  The American League staff was the most impressive as they combined for 16 punch outs.

The National League had just 7 strikeouts in comparison but were equally as impressive. The AL scored 4 runs but those were scattered across multiple innings.

So, let’s talk about it this way – the “bad” versus the “good”:

The Bad 

There were pitchers who struggled that typically are lights-out performers.

Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler from the Los Angeles Dodgers struggled a little bit. They combined for 2 earned runs on 4 hits. They did, however, account for 3 of the 7 strikeouts for the National League.

Next, we have Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers and Will Smith of the Giants.

Woodruff went two-thirds of an inning allowing 1 earned run on 1 hit and a walk.

Smith came in to relieve Woodruff and was greeted rudely by Joey Gallo. Gallo launched a first-pitch home run into the right-field seats. That is uncharacteristic of Smith who has been tough on left-handed hitters most of his career.

Smith finished the day allowing 1 earned run on 1 hit in one-third of an inning pitched.

These pitchers didn’t really have  “bad” performances but in the context of the game, they did.

The performance that I’d say was the absolute worst for any pitcher came from Indians reliever Brad Hand.

It took Brad Hand 33 pitches to get out of the 8th inning. He walked 2 batters in the inning and allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits. The big blow came with the bases loaded and Mets rookie Pete Alonso at the plate.

Alonso hit a 2-run single to bring the National League All-Stars within a run of the American League. That made him the first rookie to drive in 2 runs in the All-Star Game.

So if you were looking for the worst performance of the night, that’d be it.

The Good 

Pretty much every pitcher not named above had a good outing. I was extremely impressed with how the young guys (Mike Soroka, Luis Castillo, Sandy Alcantara) pitched. You could tell they had a few nerves going into the game but they handled themselves extremely well.

Justin Verlander and Hyun-Jin Ryu were both great to start the game. That was expected and neither of them disappointed.

However, the best performances came from 3 pitchers on the AL side. Shane Bieber, Liam Hendriks, and Aroldis Chapman all struck out the side during the All-Star game.

Chapman was absolutely disgusting closing out the game. His slider was absolutely devastating for the hitters to pick up on. When you couple that with a 100 mph fastball, you can forget about having any chance to hit the ball.

https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1148802657848635393

Hendriks was good and able to keep each hitter off balance. I was very impressed by his pitch selection and how effective he was.

Shane Bieber Named All-Star Game MVP

Shane Bieber had a great night as well for the American League squad. He and Hendriks were both added as last-minute replacements for Mike Minor and Charlie Morton who did not participate in the game.

Bieber struck out the side in the 5th inning. He struck out Contreras, Marte, and our own Acuna Jr. rather easily. His breaking ball had some great movement on it and had each guy off balance.

You could tell that he was amped up to be pitching in front of his hometown crowd. They were absolutely excited after he struck out Acuna looking.

https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1148769876745453568

This performance would earn Bieber the honors of All-Star game MVP. I’m not sure how they decided on who to choose but I have to think it was a no brainer to pick a kid from the hometown squad who started the season as their 5th starter and ended up dominating at the All-Star Game.

He is the second Indians player to win that honor since Sandy Alomar did so in 1997 – that game also took place in Cleveland.

As if that’s not impressive enough, he is also just the second player to earn the MVP honors in his home ballpark. The other player to accomplish this feat? Hall of fame pitcher, Pedro Martinez, who did so at Fenway Park back in 1999.

He is also the first pitcher to win the MVP honor since Mariano Rivera did so in 2013.

That’s some good company to keep and I’m extremely impressed with what he was able to accomplish. This may have been one of my favorite All-Star Games in recent memory.