MVN - Most Valuable Network

Lee, Sheets Start All-Star Game

Cliff Lee’s charmed season thus far gets a serious acknowledgement—American League manager Terry Francona has tapped the Cleveland Indians’ lefthander to start the All-Star Game tomorrow. That’s what going 12-2 with a 2.31 ERA in the first half gets you in the season after you got a minor league send-down to regroup.

It’s also what having a few other AL All-Stars pitching over the weekend, including Justin Duchscherer, Scott Kazmir, and Ervin Santana (Joe Saunders ended up a scratch Sunday after his wife went into labour the night before), but Lee was the no-questions-asked best starter in the AL over the first half.

Ben Sheets must be feeling good even without a minor league senddown a season earlier—the Milwaukee Brewers righthander gets the start for the National League, riding a 10-2/2.85 ERA in the first half.

But if you think that’s not quite worthy of an All-Star start, be advised that three choices many might have made over Sheets—Ryan Dempster (Chicago), Tim Lincecum (San Francisco), Edinson Volquez(Cincinnati), and Brandon Webb (Arizona)—all started over the weekend. Sheets hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday.

So how did the other All-Star pitchers fare over the weekend? Lincecum beat Dempster in Wrigley, the first time Dempster’s lost at home this season; Volquez smothered the Brewers Saturday (prompting manager Dusty Baker to ask that he not be considered for the All-Star start); Webb had a strong outing against the Phillies but left with the game tied at two (the Phillies beat the Snakes after Pat Burrell’s three-run bomb broke the tie in the eighth).

For the AL side, Kazmir came out on the wrong end of the Indians finishing a weekend sweep of the Rays; Santana threw seven scoreless at Oakland en route a 4-1 Angels win, though he fretted that he didn’t have his best stuff; Duchscherer’s strong Sunday show went for nothing when Reggie Willits scored from second on an infield single off Huston Street and K-Rod squirmed out of a bases-loaded jam to nail it for the Angels Sunday.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Catbird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.