Brewers aren’t shining stars
Grandal walking and scoring is ASG highlight
Yasmani Grandal contributed to an eighth-inning rally for the National League, but Mike Moustakas missed a big chance later in the inning, and Brandon Woodruff earlier allowed a run in a 4-3 loss to the American League in the 2019 All-Star Game on Tuesday in Cleveland.
Christian Yelich also played threeplus innings as the Brewers enjoyed healthy representation at the Midsummer Classic. Josh Hader was in attendance but had been previously scratched from the active roster with a back ailment.
Grandal’s first at-bat came leading off the eighth when he worked Cleveland lefty Brad Hand for a full-count walk. Grandal moved station-to-station and scored when Mets slugger Pete Alonso chopped a two-run single with two outs just past Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres to pull the National League to within 4-3.
That brought up Moustakas, who popped out to end the rally.
Grandal also represented the final out of the game, striking out against Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman to seal the AL’s 4-3 win.
Grandal entered the game in the bottom of the fifth behind the plate, catching his former Dodgers teammate Walker Buehler. He later caught his current teammate, Woodruff, in the seventh.
Woodruff faced three batters in the seventh and allowed a run, bitten by a leadoff walk to Oakland’s Matt Chapman. After a single from White Sox catcher James McCann, Woodruff induced a double-play groundout from Boston’s Xander Bogaerts, but Chapman scored from third and the American League extended its lead to 3-1.
Former Brewers reliever Will Smith
then checked in and served up a firstpitch home run to Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo, making it 4-1. The inning ended when Francisco Lindor hit a shot to third base that Moustakas fielded on a tricky hop before throwing to first, where Alonso saved an error and held first base for the out.
Moustakas stepped to the plate in a big spot in the eighth, with the NL within 4-3 and two runners on with two outs. After baserunners Paul DeJong and Alonso stole second and third, Moustakas worked the count to 3-1 before popping up in foul territory against Hand, with McCann making a stumbling catch to end the inning.
Moustakas flied out in his only other at-bat, swinging on the first pitch against Detroit’s Shane Greene in the seventh.
Moustakas checked into the game in the fourth inning as a third baseman, taking the spot occupied initially by Colorado’s Nolan Arenado. Moustakas was named to the team at second base, though he has shifted back to his more familiar spot at the hot corner in recent Brewers games after a struggling Travis Shaw was sent to Class AAA San Antonio.
Yelich, starting in left field, had a fairly quiet 3 1⁄2 innings. He became the second Brewers player to bat leadoff in an All-Star Game and sent a rocket down the line against starter Justin Verlander, but Cleveland first baseman Carlos Santana snared it for the first out of the game. Yelich struck out in his second atbat with a runner on second base in the third against Twins right-hander Jose Berrios.
Yelich, who participated in a mic’d up segment for the Fox broadcast during his time in the field, also ran down a deep fly ball in left off the bat of Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez.
Yelich may not have replicated last year’s feat, when he became the second Brewers player to homer in an all-star game, but he was featured in a cool promotional ad put forth by Major League Baseball profiling what appears to be a two-horse race for the NL MVP, “Belli vs. Yeli.” Both Yelich and Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger are shown executing various offensive skills in their respective ballparks, and the commercial concludes by asking, “Who ya got?”
The American League took the lead in the second inning on an RBI double from former Brewers prospect Michael Brantley. Brantley was the biggest loss in the 2008 CC Sabathia trade, and he’s in his first year with the Houston Astros after 10 years with the Cleveland Indians, with whom he made three additional all-star teams.
Sabathia, who went on to carry the Brewers to the 2008 playoffs, delivered a ceremonial first pitch before the game before the same Cleveland fans who witnessed him make three all-star teams and win a Cy Young Award. The Yankees southpaw has announced this will be his final year before retirement.
Sabathia also came out to the mound for a playful visit to Chapman before Chapman faced Grandal in the ninth.