Elly De La Cruz An All-Star Andrew Abbott And TJ Friedl Close

 

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Dateline: 1,209 Kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico

Elly De La Cruz made the National League All-Star squad for the 95th Midsummer Classic in Atlanta on July 15.

He was picked for the second year in a row.

His teammates TJ Friedl and Andrew Abbott are on the outside looking in. 

Friedl is slashing .280/.368/.409 with 14 doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 31 RBI. He has been on base 138 times from the leadoff spot in the batting order only Shohei Ohtani has more with 156. Friedl scored 50 runs and stolen nine bases.

Abbott had a rough outing on Friday, giving up four runs in 3 1/3 innings. The pitching line lifted his ERA from 1.79 to 2.15. If Abbott had enough innings to qualify fot the ERA title he would be fifth in baseball just ahead of Zack Wheeler's 2.19. Among the pitchers named to both squads, just Hunter Brown, Tarik Skubal and Jacob DeGrom have a lower ERA. Nine All-Start pitchers have a higher ERA.

De La Cruz was chosen as reserve with the New York Mets, Francisco Lindor as the starter.

Lindor slashes .260/.333/.452.

De La Cruz slashes .277/.349/.487.

De La Cruz has more doubles triples two to zero; more home runs 18-17; more RBI 60-49 and more stolen bases 22-14.

Reds' manager, Terry Francona, assembled the team Sunday in Philadelphia to announce that De La Cruz made the NL squad.

"I tried to strike a balance," Francona said. "It's a huge honor for Elly and we want him to feel that way. You want to let the ballclub show their appreciation and their excitement for him. At the same time you want to make sure that guys like Friedl and Abbott, not to have a downer meeting, but to say, hey we really respect what you guys are doing. It morphed into, hey, we're a team. That's what we ultimetley care about."

Francona addressed the system of selection. "As long as you know what the process is and it's been changing. So it's not necessarily the best players. Every team must be represented and that's not a bad thing. As long as you know going in there's going to be some guys left out. That's just the way it is."

Carson Spiers and Hunter Greene are rehabbing in Louisville. Spiers will pitch four innings on Tuesday as the pitch count allows. Greene will take another MRI.

"Out of an abudance of caution, we want to see another MRI before we send him out there," Francona said. 

Texas Steal Home Field Advantage In the World Series

The Texas Rangers were scoreless until the ninth inning against the surprising St. Louis Cardinals in Game Two of the World Series in St. Louis.


The Cardinals took the lead in the series on Wednesday with a 3-2 win.  Tony La Russa pushed the right button by sending Allen Craig to pinch hit against Alexi Ogando, a former outfielder who became the Rangers fifth starter.  


Craig poked a single to right in the sixth inning put the St. Louis bullpen which was a problem all year for the Cardinals, to shine in closing the game out.


Game two was a pitching duel between Colby Lewis of Texas and Jaime Garcia of St. Louis.  After singles by David Freese and Nick Punto put runners on the corners with two out against Lewis. 

Jim LaBarbara

Texas manager, Ron Washington, was true to his strategy and brought in Ogando again.  La Russa kept to his strategy and sent Craig to the plate again.  For the second straight night, Craig put his team up by a run.


The Cardinal bullpen, Fernando Salas, and Marc Rzepczynski  (nicknamed Scrabble) held the Rangers off until the ninth.


Jason Motte, the defacto closer, started the ninth for the Cardinals.  Ian Kinsler dropped a single into left field.  The Cardinals, playing "no doubles" allowed the ball to fall in.  it is a strategy similar to footballs prevent defense.  Sometimes it backfires like it did tonight.


The theory is that you force the Rangers hitters to get a series of hits by preventing the extra base hit.  Kinsler spoiled the strategy by getting a great jump on Motte to steal second ahead of a strong throw by Yadier Molina.


Elvis Andrus singled to right center but took second when the throw from Jon Jay eluded Albert Pujols, the cut off man. Kinsler stopped at third.


The inability to handle the throw allowed Andrus to move into scoring position.


La Russa elected to take Motte down in favor of former Red and most recently former Ranger, Arthur Rhodes.


Rhodes job was to strike out Josh Hamilton, another former Red.  Hamilton hit a fly deep enough to score Kinsler with the tying run.


Cleanup hitter Michael Young followed with another sacrifice fly to give Texas its first World Series lead.


Texas closer Neftali Feliz walked Molina to start the inning but struck out Punto, who failed to move Molina along.  He also fanned Schumaker and retired Rafael Furcal with a fly to Nelson Cruz in right.


The Series now becomes a best of five with at least three games in Arlington, Texas giving the Rangers the home field advantage.