Red Sox Shine in All-Star Game, Road Ahead

The AL outlasted the NL in a 4-2 showdown in Tuesday night’s 89th MLB All-Star Game, as the game was headlined by Red Sox star David Ortiz’s last career ASG.

The 87th MLB All-Star Game took place Tuesday night in San Diego, CA at Petco Park and the Boston Red Sox placed proper representation into the American League starting Lineup. The mid-summer classic featured a lot of “flame-throwers” along with the best sluggers baseball has to offer. The AL came out on top 4-2 over the National League, Kansas City 1B Eric Hosmer was named the All-Star Game MVP after going 2 for 3 at the plate with a home run, and played superb defense over at the right corner of the infield.

The majority of the game was headlined by Red Sox DH David Ortiz, the 10-time all-star was playing in his last ASG. The emotion was wild, as Ortiz (0 for 1, BB) was applauded and appreciated by fans and every player on each roster as they should have.

Ortiz has played the game hard every day since he first took the field on the Major League level in Minnesota in 1997. The applause was well appreciated by Ortiz, the 40-year-old who might be having one of his better seasons yet (.332, 22 HR, 72 RBI’s) has gained the respect of all baseball figures for a lifetime, including Hall of Fame Voter Tim Kurkjian who said “David has my vote, we’ll see how it plays out” .

“The All-Star Game is a moment that you want to give everybody the opportunity to go out there and play,” Ortiz said. “You don’t get to the All-Star Game just because you have a good name and just because you come from a good family. It’s a lot of hard work.” The left-handed hitter has proved to put in the hard work, with hitting over 500 home runs, over 1500 RBI’s and has taken on the role as the clutchest hitter to ever play the game, mainly in October. It will be a real sad scene come seasons end when we see Ortiz “hang em up”, hopefully his career can end with a nice “ring” to it.

Including Ortiz, SS Xander Bogaerts, OF Mookie Betts, and OF Jackie Bradley Jr. all started for the American League and they did not disappoint. The group combined to hit 4 for 7 from the plate, including a Bogaerts RBI double in the 3rd inning to help the American League collect some much-needed insurance to secure the victory.

The core of Bradley Jr., Betts, and Bogaerts is something out of a video game, all under the age of 25 these guys could all be on the American League starting lineup for years to come. If it was up to Bogaerts, he would like the “Killer B’s” to remain stars together in Boston.“I love the city. I love the people here, and I love the coaching staff,” Bogaerts toldThe Boston Globe ahead of his first All-Game appearance. “This is the only thing I know. We have a good core of young guys. I hope we stay together because we can do some special things”.

We have seen all of them shine at points this season, Bradley Jr.’s 29-game hit streak, Bogaerts solidifying himself as one of the game’s top shortstops, and how Betts has made it known that he is one of the best lead-off hitters in baseball.“We’ll see what happens and where life takes me. If you put up good numbers and play the game the right way, good things will happen.”, added Bogaerts. The Red Sox have the #1 offense and baseball, and these four guys including Ortiz have been the main contributors. Hopefully they keep up the good work come the second half, they are the backbone of this offense. The help of the offense, along with the hope of the pitching staff stepping up this second half could be just enough to help propel the BoSox into October baseball.

“Did Yost get it Wright?”

Red Sox RHP Steven Wright who was elected to his first All-Star Game this season, after having a superb first half to the season (10-5 2.68 ERA) did not play in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game due to the discretion of Kansas City’s Manager Ned Yost. With a knuckleballer who has had as much success as Wright has this season, you really ask “Yost, whats the deal? Why doesn’t Wright get an inning out there?”.

As selfless as Wright is, he really enjoyed the moment and went on to say that Yost had an explanation of why his appearance never happened. “Because this game means so much, they wanted to make sure that if we went extra innings, we didn’t run out of pitching,” Wright said, via Sporting News. “So, instead of having me go early, they wanted me to hold off and kind of be the insurance guy. “I mean, I was totally cool with that. I like that he told me that was going to be my role, and he honored that. I respect the heck out of that.”

With so much success Wright has had in the first half of the season, hopefully we can see this consistency keep up for the rest of the season to help drive this team toward postseason play. He has without a doubt been the most productive pitcher on the Red Sox staff this season, and if he continues to be this dominant don’t be surprised to see him get some AL Cy Young votes come his way toward seasons end.

Red Sox Closer RHP Craig Kimbrel who was also an all-star but was placed on the disabled list last week, had successful knee surgery and you can expect him to be back in about 6 weeks. The flamethrower has been the anchor of this bullpen all year, and when it comes down to it the pitching of this club will be the deciding factor in if they can head in the right direction and make it to postseason play.

Road Ahead

The Red Sox will resume baseball Friday night as they take on the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium where they will play a three-game set. Then they’ll travel home for a 9-game home-stand where they will face San Francisco, Minnesota, and Detroit as they look to climb up in the American League East standings.

Next: Red Sox Rotation Remains Unchanged from Opening Day

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