All-Star Game ratings crawl up
TV viewership improves from last year’s record low.
Television viewership for the All-Star Game ticked up slightly from last year’s record low.
The American League’s 2-1, 10-inning win at Miami on Tuesday got a 5.5 national rating, 11 share and average audience of 9.28 million on Fox. Viewership was up 7 percent from last year’s 4-2 AL win in San Diego, which received a 5.4 rating and 10 share on Fox, where its average audience was 8.71 million.
The network said Wednesday that the combined average audience of 9.44 million on Fox, Fox Deportes and the online stream Fox Sports Go was up 7 percent from last year’s 8.83 million.
Fox experimented with interviews with Bryce Harper and George Springer while they were playing the outfield, spoke with hitters as they were about to bat and had former All-Star Alex Rodriguez walk onto the field near third base to conduct interviews.
Sluggers hitless: Monday night’s most-watched sluggers fizzled Tuesday night.
A day after winning the Home Run Derby with 47 long balls, Yankees rookie Aaron Judge went 0 for 3. He struck out against NL starter Max Scherzer, grounded out against Carlos Martinez and flew out vs. Alex Wood.
“I was nervous the first pitch,” Judge said, “but after that it’s go time — 3-2 I was getting ready for 100 (mph), and I got a slider.”
Giancarlo Stanton, the star slugger of the hometown Marlins, was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a dribbler in front of the plate. That came a day after being eliminated in the first round of the Home Run Derby on Monday night. He didn’t arrive in Miami until 5 a.m. Monday because the Marlins played last weekend in San Francisco.
Don’t expect to see much more of Stanton until the Marlins resume their season Friday at home against the Dodgers. “I’m going to take these two days,” he said, “and hopefully don’t see anyone and don’t do a dang thing.”
Pitchers rule: NL pitchers struck out 14, including four by Martinez, three by Kenley Jansen and two each by Scherzer and Greg Holland. Starter Chris Sale and the rest of the AL pitchers struck out nine. The average fastball velocity in the game was 96.5 mph, up from 94.8 mph last year. “Spectacular pitching on both sides,” NL manager Joe Maddon said.
Clutch pitching: Yankees reliever Dellin Betances threw just 12 of 23 pitches for strikes in the third inning. He walked Harper and Buster Posey, threw two wild pitches and got out of a bases-loaded jam when Daniel Murphy grounded out. Betances joined Juan Marichal, Dave Stieb and John Smoltz as the only ones to throw two wild pitches in an All-Star inning.
“After I lost Harper I lost concentration a little bit,” Betances said. “I was able to settle down and make pitches when I needed to.”
Noteworthy: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is hoping to see progress soon on new ballparks in Tampa Bay and Oakland. Manfred said he wants to keep the Rays and A’s in their current cities, and he’s holding off on beginning expansion talks until those teams get new stadiums. Future candidates for expansion include Montreal, Mexico City and Charlotte, N.C.