It was nice to see the NL blast the AL, winning the Midsummer Classic for the third year in a row (after a long, long stretch of losing). Justin Verlander tried to crank it up too early in the first, and he was rewarded with a five-run inning, built in large part on ripped shots off of pitches left up in the zone.
Go NL, and all that.
But, if you were watching, or if you were following me on Twitter last night, you know what I think is the real story of the game, at least from the Cubs’ perspective. Bryan LaHair didn’t get into the game until the 7th inning, and Starlin Castro didn’t get in until the 8th. That’s despite the fact that each was the only real back-up at his position, and the fact that the game was well out of hand by the middle innings. Instead of doing the right thing, Tony La Russa elected to do this …