The Major League Baseball All Star Game will take place Tuesday night at Nationals Park. The Boston Red Sox will be well represented in the mid summer classic sending five players to Washington, DC, including three that will start for the American League.
Mookie Betts (third ASG) will leadoff and play right field in his third straight appearance, second straight as a starter. Betts leads all of MLB with a .359 batting average. Betts is also second in on base percentage, and first in both OPS and slugging percentage also in all of baseball. JD Martinez (second ASG) will get his first All Star start and bat cleanup at designated hitter. Martinez is tied for the MLB lead in home runs with 29 and first in RBI with 80. Martinez is also second behind teammate Betts in slugging percentage. Lefty Chris Sale makes his third consecutive start in the ASG, his seventh overall. Sale in his last seven starts before the break has under a 1.00 ERA, 78 strikeouts, and has given up two runs or less in his last five starts. Sale also becomes just the third pitcher in history to start three straight All Star games, the first since Robin Roberts did it for the N.L. from 1953-55. Lefty Gomez also did it for the A.L. from 1933-35.
First baseman Mitch Moreland comes off the bench to appear in his first ASG. Moreland is batting .278 with 11 homers and 46 RBI so far this season. Craig Kimbrel, the Sox closer, appears in his seventh ASG. Kimbrel is 2-1 with a 1.77 ERA with 30 saves this season. He has only allowed eight earned runs over 40.2 innings, while striking out 62. Max Scherzer from the host team Washington Nationals will start on the mound for the National League when the first pitch is thrown Tuesday night shortly after 8 pm.
MLB no longer lets the All Star game decide home field for the World Series. That stopped in 2017. It is now the pennant winner with the best record who gets home field for the Fall Classic. Between 2003-2016 the league that won the ASG got home field, a decision that was made after a 7-7 tie occurred at the All Star game in 2002 after both teams ran out of available pitchers. Before 2003, the leagues rotated home field year to year for the World Series.
All Star game festivities began Monday night with the All Star Legends competing in the celebrity softball game. Another fan favorite also took place in the home run derby. Hometown favorite Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper faced Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber in the final. Schwarber hit 18 homers, and Harper was stuck on 9 with just 45 seconds left, but somehow found energy to hit 9 to tie it and then hit one out to center in bonus time to win it.
