Greinke, Keuchel named All-Star Game starters

Zack Greinke. Photo credit foxsport
Zack Greinke. Photo credit foxsport

Los Angeles Dodgers ace Zack Greinke and Houston Astros hurler Dallas Keuchel will be the starting pitchers in Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, rival managers announced Monday.

Greinke will take the mound for the National League in his third appearance at the mid-season classic after going 8-2 with a major league-leading 1.39 earned-run average for the NL West leaders.

The 31-year-old right-hander, who won the 2009 Cy Young Award as a season’s best pitcher while with Kansas City, How to Bet and Win has not surrendered an earned run in five starts, a span of 35 2/3 innings.

Keuchel, a 27-year-old left-hander with a long beard and a variety of mystifying throws, makes his All-Star debut. He has gone 11-4 with a 2.23 earned-run average for the Astros, Tips and Tricks for Successful betting who trail the Los Angeles Angels by half a game in the American League West division. His 11 wins match Seattle All-Star Felix Hernandez for the AL lead.

More than bragging rights among baseball’s elite is at stake in the 86th edition of the contest, the first staged at Great American Ballpark and the first in Cincinnati since 1988.

Whichever league’s all-star team wins the game will claim a home-field advantage for its league champion in the World Series against the other league champion next October.

Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, the major league’s top batter with a .350 average, is out with an injury so Albert Pujols, Solid Understanding of Odds whose 26 home runs match him for the American League lead with All-Star starting outfielder and Angels teammate Mike Trout, starts at first base for the AL.

The Kansas City Royals, who own the AL’s best record at 52-34, boast three All-Star starters in catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Alcides Escobar and outfielder Lorenzo Cain and lost a fourth with injured Alex Gordon replaced by Baltimore’s Adam Jones.

Injured Miami outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, Strategies and Techniques for Success the major league homers leader with 27, was replaced in the National League starting lineup by Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen.

Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt, the NL batting leader at .340, will start at first base for the NL with Washington’s Bryce Harper, just behind him at .349, Best betting website in Nigeria starting in the outfield alongside McCutchen and Joc Pederson of the Dodgers.

Jhonny Peralta, the shortstop for St. Louis, also starts for the NL along with catcher Buster Posey of reigning World Series champion San Francisco, third baseman Todd Frazier of Cincinnati and Colorado’s D.J. LeMathieu, who replaced Miami’s injured Dee Gordon at second base.

At the mid-season break, St. Louis tops the NL Central at 56-33 with Pittsburgh second in a wildcard playoff spot at 53-35. The Dodgers pace the NL West at 51-39, only two games in front of San Francisco, while Washington (48-39) clings to a one-game edge on the New York Mets in the NL East. The Royals top the AL Central and Angels the AL West while the New York Yankees pace the AL East at 48-40.

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