American League wins it in 10th inning ... 10 home runs are hit ... Happ given props for use of his high fastball ... commish OK with expansion and Osuna’s impending return
WASHINGTON, D.C. — So which night was the home run derby again?
Indicative of the way of the world of pro baseball is in 2018, Tuesday night’s 89th Major League Baseball allstar game was all about the long ball.
When the booming finally subsided at Nationals Park after 10 innings, the American League exited with an 8-6 win. Not only did all but one of the 14 runs scored come off of a home run ball, the 10 combined dingers set a Midsummer Classic record.
In fact the old mark of six — last reached in 1971 — was destroyed.
It ended in dramatic fashion with back-to-back homers from World Series champion Houston Astros teammates Alex Bregman and
George Springer in the top of the 10th.
And even that wasn’t the end of it. With the AL out of fresh arms, Blue Jays starter
J.A. Happ came in with a three-run lead to pitch the 10th.
His first offering was sent over the wall in right field by none other than Toronto native Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds.
It was that kind of a night in the record-breaking Midsummer Classic.
It all started fittingly when 2017 derby champ Aaron
Judge got things rocking in the second inning with a 399shot over the wall in left field. With the tap open, the big shots continued to pour right to the end.
Of the 10 round-trippers, just two weren’t of the solo variety, starting with a threerun effort by Seattle shortstop
Jean Segura in the eighth, which opened what seemed to be a comfortable three-run lead for manager A.J. Hinch’s
AL squad.
Not so fast. After the NL pulled to within one in the eighth, Reds second baseman
Scooter Gennett launched a two-run shot to tie it at 5-5 and force extras.
Judge, who became the first Yankee to hit an all-star game homer in 15 years
(Jason Giambi, 2003), was followed by teammate for a night Mike Trout in the next inning.
The NL countered with another solo shot from the Chicago Cubs’ Wilson Contreras in the bottom of the third and that was all the scoring until the bottom of the seventh. And on it went.
HAPP GETS RESPECT
If Happ was nervous about his first trip to the MLB allstar game, Justin Verlander and some of his World Series champion Houston Astros teammates eased some of that on Tuesday. A handful of Astros were chatting with the Blue Jays starter and applauded him for being a trendsetter in the game. Specifically, Verlander and company were impressed with Happ’s mastery of the high fastball, a growing trend in the game today.
“They were like ‘you were ahead of the curve with the fastball in the top of the zone stuff,’” Happ said. “I wish that was something that I maybe would have recognized earlier in my career that it was a strength of mine.
“Instead, I spent years fighting that at times and now I’m trying to use it more as a weapon. There is a trend that way in baseball as far as I’m concerned. It’s fun to have confidence in it instead of trying to fight it.”
Happ spent most of the night stapled to the bench in the AL bullpen but started warming in the ninth to come in for the successful save opportunity.
EXPANDED HORIZONS
It gets tiring at times, the inevitable questions regarding potential future expansion whenever MLB commissioner Rob Manfred speaks publicly.
But there was certainly reason to take notice on Tuesday when Manfred said he favoured eight four-team divisions.
“Once (stadium issues in Tampa and Oakland) are resolved, I would love to get to 32 teams,” Manfred said. “There are a number of cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States that want Major League Baseball. That’s great for our sport.” In an interview on the Dan
Patrick Show, Manfred went a step further citing both Montreal “and maybe someplace else in Canada.”
Before getting too excited — we see you Montreal — note that in various interviews as Manfred made the rounds on Tuesday he talked about Nashville, Portland and Las Vegas all being possibilities for expansion.
COMMISH ON OSUNA
When asked about Jays closer Roberto Osuna returning to the team before his court case regarding charges he assaulted a woman in Toronto back in May is settled, Manfred stood by the league’s domestic violence policy.
Considering the policy was formed jointly with the players association and Osuna agreed to waive the right to appeal, this is no surprise.
“We negotiated a domestic violence policy that has proved to be extraordinarily effective across a wide variety of circumstances,” Manfred said at the annual Baseball Writers Association of America luncheon.
“If the application of that policy results in Roberto coming back to work after a very long suspension while there are still unresolved criminal proceedings, I can live with that because that’s the policy we negotiated.” Jays general manager Ross
Atkins said recently that the team will welcome Osuna back as its closer when his 75-game suspension ends on Aug. 4. In fact, the 23-yearold native of Mexico was already active in a rehab assignment pitching one scoreless inning on Tuesday morning in the Dunedin Blue Jays’ 4-0 win over the Florida Fire Frogs.
Osuna has been out of action since he was charged by police on May 9.
AROUND THE BASES
With speculation that he is headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers as early as Wednesday, Orioles star Manny
Machado did nothing to dispel the rumours when he left Nationals Park in the seventh inning without talking to the media … Tuesday’s game was the fifth time the Midsummer Classic was played in Washington, but the first since 1969 when it was contested at RFK Stadium … After the first 88 editions of the all-star game, the all-time record was knotted at 43-43-2 … The AL entered this year’s 89th edition on a five-game winning streak ... The game featured the third game-tying home run in the ninth inning or later in allstar game history, along with Ralph Kiner in 1950 and Fred McGriff in 1994.