All-Star Game 2012

By Adam Kilgore

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They stood along the third base line at Kaufmann Stadium, at the very end of the line for alphabetical reasons only. The stadium lights glimmered off Bryce Harper’s gold spikes. Stephen Strasburg forgot to remove his cap when the announcer called his name. Gio Gonzalez grinned. Somewhere in the stadium, owner Ted Lerner watched in person. A stealth bomber zoomed over the park. For the first time, three Washington Nationals stood together at the All-Star Game.

Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper and Angels outfielder Mike Trout will lead a record five rookies into MLB's All-Star game. At 19, Harper is the youngest position player in All-Star history. Trout, just 20, is leading the AL in hitting.

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By the end of Tuesday night, the Nationals’ contingent had each made contributions, in their own styles, to the National League’s 8-0 thumping of the American League. Gonzalez, the left-hander who is tied for the major league lead in wins, fired perhaps the best inning all night.
Strasburg added another scoreless frame, if not as dominant.
And Harper, the youngest position player ever to appear in an All-Star Game, did what he usually does. He stood out in ways no one would expect.
He walked and took second base on a fly ball to left field, only to be caught in a rundown. He then lost a routine fly ball in the lights and watched it plop behind him, then he struck out in his second at-bat.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Harper said. “I don’t really get nervous anymore. I’ve been in that moment so many times, I don’t really get nervous.”
By the time Harper entered the game, the National League had already decided the result.
It bashed American League ace Justin Verlander for five runs in the first inning and cruised to the most lopsided victory since 1983, when the American League won, 13-3.
The victory gave home-field advantage in the World Series to the NL, which could affect the Nationals.
They have the best record in the National League. The team with home-field advantage has won 24 of the past 31 World Series and nine consecutive Game 7s. Take a moment to dream, if you’d like, and imagine Nationals Park hosting the first or decisive game of the World Series.
Their starters helped the cause. Gonzalez entered in the third inning, replacing starter Matt Cain and staked to a 5-0 lead. Before his first pitch, Gonzalez took a deep breath, in tribute to Ian Desmond.
The Nationals’ all-star shortstop had to pull out of the game with a strained oblique, but he frequently visits Gonzalez during starts to tell him to slow down and breathe.
“I had him in the back of my mind,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez had no reason to worry about Tuesday’s game. He struck out Texas Rangers catcher Mike Napoli on four pitches, touching 95 mph with his fastball and finishing him off with an outside curveball, which Napoli swung over. Gonzalez induced a lazy fly to left by Curtis Granderson and then Derek Jeter bounced the first pitch he saw to second base. Gonzalez needed 11 pitches, seven of them strikes, for a 1-2-3 inning.
NL Manager Tony La Russa stacked the Nationals’ two starters. Strasburg entered in the fourth with a juicy set of matchups: Robinson Cano, Josh Hamilton and Jose Bautista were due up. “Insane!” Strasburg later tweeted.

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