Washington Nationals Recap: Bryce Harper Goes 0-for-3 In NL All-Star Game Loss
By Ricky Keeler
The game’s greatest stars were all on display, both past and present tonight at the 84th MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati. Before the game, the results were announced for each team’s Franchise Four. The four selections for the Washington Nationals were all Montreal Expos. Those players were Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Vladimir Guerrero, and Tim Raines.
As for the game itself, the only Nationals’ player that took the field tonight was right fielder Bryce Harper. Harper got the start in right field and was batting third in the order for Bruce Bochy‘s squad. However, he went hitless for the third time in his All-Star career and the National League lost to the American League by a final score of 6-3. If the Nats were to reach the World Series, Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 would be at an AL ballpark.
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Harper put together a good at-bat in the first inning against starter Dallas Keuchel. He worked the count full, but grounded out to third to end the inning. In his other two at-bats, he would strike out swinging against David Price in the fourth and reliever Zach Britton in the sixth. During that at-bat against Britton, he hit the first pitch down the left field line, but it was just foul.
The American League got on the board first against Zack Greinke when Mike Trout, last year’s All-Star MVP, hit a solo shot to right field. The National League would get that run back in the bottom of the second on a RBI single by Jhonny Peralta that would score Paul Goldschmidt, who singled and reached second on an error to begin the inning.
The AL would re-take the lead against Clayton Kershaw in the top of the fifth. With Trout on second and Albert Pujols on first, Prince Fielder would hit a RBI single to left to give the AL a 2-1 lead. The lead would go to 3-1 when Lorenzo Cain hit a RBI double.
The NL would get that run back in the bottom of the sixth when Andrew McCutchen led off the inning with a solo home run to left against Chris Archer, who was in his second inning of work at the time. During the top of that inning, Jacob deGrom was great for the NL. He threw ten pitches, nine of them were for strikes as he struck out the side.
In the following inning, the AL would tack on two more runs against Francisco Rodriguez. After a Trout leadoff walk, Manny Machado hit a RBI double to center that scored Brock Holt (who was pinch-running for Trout). Two batters later, Fielder drove in his second RBI on a sacrifice fly to center to give the AL a 5-2 lead. That lead would go up to 6-2 an inning later when Brian Dozier hit a solo shot to dead center field against Mark Melancon.
The NL would try to rally back against Glen Perkins in the bottom of the ninth inning. Ryan Braun led off the inning with a triple and he would come around to score on a sacrifice fly to left by Brandon Crawford cut the AL lead to 6-3. But, Perkins would get the next two batters out to end the game.
David Price picked up the win while Clayton Kershaw took the loss. Mike Trout won the MVP for the second straight year. He is the first player ever to win back-to-back MVP awards in an All-Star Game.