All Star Hype Ends...One Last Parting Shot at Bochy

The All Star hysteria is over.  The American League gets home field advantage in the World Series.  Mariano Rivera had his moment.  Bruce Bochy placed 4 of his players from his 4^th place (8 games under .500) team on the squad.  In the process he alienated Clayton Kershaw, who admitted that he was hurt by Bochy’s comments in which he stated that Matt Harvey was the best pitcher in the National League this year.  That’s extra motivation for the Dodger ace.  Not that he really needs it, as he’s 11-4 with a 1.32 lifetime ERA in 150 innings against the men in orange and black.

Additionally, to Los Angeles’ benefit,  the injury-riddled Dodgers were able to rest their ailing club during this four  day span before setting off for the nation’s capital and a three game set with the Nationals.  It was probably a good thing that the battered and bruised Puig wasn’t in the New York spotlight and distracted from the true mission at hand, and that is to win the West.

While watching the game last night, a blackout hit my residence and all power was lost in the bottom of the 8^th inning.  What followed was a scramble for flashlights and a night without the luxuries of the internet, television, and central air.   The game was forgotten and though the result seemed to be a foregone conclusion at that point,  I didn’t even look to verify that the A.L had won until this morning.   

That’s how anti-climactic the mid-summer classic was to me.  It was a rather fitting sequence of events though, as the National League generated as much power as PG&E did to my home yesterday.  They were offensively inept.  I couldn’t help thinking that an insertion of a Hanley Ramirez or Yasiel Puig into the late innings might have triggered some sort of rally, as we have repeatedly watched those two offensive forces in the Dodger lineup produce lately.  Bochy instead was left with such players as Marco Scutaro, Jean Segura, Everth Cabrera, Allen Craig and Matt Carpenter as late inning replacement options.

Am I still bitter about Bochy and his handling of the All Star game?  Yeah, I guess I am.  He’s a Giant for heaven’s sake.  Everywhere we looked last night there were those vanilla cream jerseys in the National League dugout and in the coaching boxes.  It made the whole experience less enjoyable.  Such are the spoils of winning the whole enchilada the year before.  May we never see it again in our lifetime.