Twistity Sports Exclusive: ALL-STAR HITS AND MISSES

 
When baseball’s All-Stars get together, it’s a perfect game – no runs, no hits. But plenty of errors.

Tonight’s game at Target Field in Minneapolis will, with any luck, produce five times as many runs as the World Cup championship game yielded in goals. That magic number would be a meager five. A year ago, the American League won 3-0, with the National League collecting all of three hits. The previous year, the NL won 8-0 and the AL garnered six hits.

Pitching rules baseball again. Middle-inning relievers, set-up men and closers all seem to throw 100 MPH fastballs now. Batters rarely face the starter more than three times in a game. And look at the rosters. NL manager Mike Matheny had to choose between a pitcher on his St. Louis Cardinals staff, Adam Wainwright, and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers to start tonight. Wainwright has an ERA of 1.83, with Kershaw at 1.78. Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds could have made this debate more interesting but he pitched just before the break and won’t be available.

More about Matheny and his ‘choices’ in a moment.

Nobody can hit anymore. The consecutive shutouts in All-Star play were a first in major league history. Batting averages have hit (so to speak) their lowest level ever and strikeouts are accumulating at a record pace. We used to laugh at the Mendoza Line (.200) but the Atlanta Braves continue to carry Dan Uggla (.173).

Now, the beef with Matheny. The Cardinals manager seems to think he is managing the Cardinals tonight and not the NL All-Stars. Given the chance to add the top hitting third baseman in the league to his roster (the Miami Marlins’ Casey McGehee), he instead chose Matt Carpenter of (ta-da) the Cardinals. Carpenter is hitting .283 with four home runs and 34 RBI. McGehee is hitting .320 with one home run and 53 RBI. Should have been an easy choice and apparently for Matheny it was. He took his own player. Feathered his own nest.

Then he selected Wainwright over Kershaw to start. Kershaw? The guy who pitched 41 consecutive innings? Wainwright is 12-4, Kershaw 11-2. As a fan, give me Kershaw.

No runs, no hits, at least two errors for the NL. Have a fun evening.

Today’s question: Did Mike Matheny hurt the NL team to secure his own status? Put your comments in the box at the bottom of the post. Let’s have an argument!
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .