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It\u2019s been well-documented that the National League has failed to capture a victory in the Midsummer Classic since 1996, even though the last four contests have been decided by a single run.\u00a0 Ever since the game was changed to hand the victor home-field advantage in the World Series, the National League has failed to deliver as well.\u00a0 \u201cThe priority is to win the ballgame,\u201d Philadelphia Phillies and National League manager Charlie Manuel said.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s why we are here.\u201d\u00a0 All the talk about the Senior Circuit is centered on the pitching staff, with Florida starter Josh Johnson, Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay and San Francisco\u2019s two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum set to come out of the pen.<\/p>\n
National League starter Ubaldo Jimenez is a sparkling 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA in 18 starts this season and produced a bounce back performance last time out.\u00a0 He picked up a 4-2 home victory over the St. Louis Cardinals by allowing just a single run and three hits over eight innings.\u00a0 In his three prior starts, the hard-throwing right-hander surrendered 17 runs and 19 hits in 17.2 innings of work.\u00a0 Jimenez will be the first Colorado Rockies pitcher to start an All-Star Game and the fifth pitcher from the club to be invited.\u00a0 \u201cI want to say it\u2019s a huge honor for me just to be out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The American League knows the importance of this game and with New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi pushing the buttons, expect a focused effort by the Junior Circuit.\u00a0 \u201cAs far as the importance of the game, I think it\u2019s extremely important,\u201d Girardi said.\u00a0 \u201cWe were recipients of home-field advantage last year and I know it matters for the World Series.\u201d\u00a0 The AL has ruled interleague play for years and has also won the World Series in four of the last six seasons.\u00a0 The club will start the game with a couple of All-Star game veterans in Seattle\u2019s Ichiro Suzuki and New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter.\u00a0 Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford, who leads the majors with 70 runs, may play a key role in the No. 9 spot in the order.\u00a0 The starting nine for the squad is hitting a combined .318 and averaging just over 13 home runs and 54 RBIs.<\/p>\n
American League starter David Price is 12-4 with a 2.42 ERA in 17 starts this season, leading the league in both wins and ERA through the first-half.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Price said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a great honor that I\u2019m here representing the Rays.\u201d\u00a0 At 24, Price becomes the youngest pitcher to start the game since 23-year-old Dwight Gooden of the Mets in 1998.\u00a0 The former No. 1 pick in the draft has been especially difficult to hit for left-handed batters, holding the opposition to a .194 batting average.<\/p>\n
The common theme surrounding the first-half of the 2010 MLB season has been the dominance of pitchers over hitters.\u00a0 The National League is motivated to end its current losing streak and has the arms to do it.\u00a0 I believe the American League will be hurt by not having a couple Yankees stars in closer Mariano Rivera and starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia.\u00a0 After losing 12 of the past 13 years (2003 tie) and 11 of those games decided by three runs or less, the NL prevails and gives the league an advantage come October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senior Circuit is primed to breakthrough with its power pitching staff and end the Junior Circuit’s dominance in the Midsummer Classic. National League at American League It\u2019s been well-documented that the National League has failed to capture a victory in the Midsummer Classic since 1996, even though the last four contests have been decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[285,151,502,397,2221,727,1450,523],"class_list":["post-5575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-all-star-game","tag-american-league","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-david-price","tag-joe-girardi","tag-national-league","tag-ubaldo-jimenez","tag-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5577,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions\/5577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}