All-Star Game shows Goldy’s goods, Helsley’s heat

LOS ANGELES – Two of the St. Louis Cardinals’ major performers this year shipped in a showcase of baseball’s most effective Tuesday night.

When the Nationwide League dropped its ninth straight MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, Cardinals’ very first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and relief pitcher Ryan Helsley took edge of confined prospects in the midsummer basic.

Goldschmidt, voted by admirers as the Cardinals’ lone All-Star starter, had a particularly hectic initial inning. The All-Star game started with a very first-pitch, leadoff one to Los Angeles Angels’ phenom Shohei Ohtani. Three pitches later on, Goldschmidt flashed his Gold Glove-caliber defense for the game’s 1st out, teaming up with Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw to choose off Ohtani at initial foundation.

Later on in the inning, hitting cleanup in the NL beginning lineup, Goldschmidt smoked a 2- pitch to the remaining-discipline bleachers off Tampa Bay Rays’ commencing pitcher Shane McClanahan. His solo house run additional on to an early National League guide and doubled the team’s offensive output in the opening frame.

Goldschmidt’s All-Star Recreation household operate was the 1st from a Cardinals hitter due to the fact Yadier Molina in 2017. It was the 1st of 3 in the match Tuesday night time right before the American League took the lead on back again-ot-back jacks from Giancarlo Stanton and Byron Buxton.

Due to a crowded NL industry at initially base, highlighted by four All-Stars at the placement, Goldschmidt was minimal to three innings in the field and one particular at-bat. Goldschmidt manufactured one particular additional putout in the second inning in advance of the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman pinch-strike for him in the 3rd.

The property run caps a extraordinary initially half for Goldschmidt, a person that highlighted a .330 batting ordinary, 20 house runs and 70 RBI. He is presently on tempo for personal-best in property operates and RBI, while his 4.8 WAR is next-finest in the league driving teammate Nolan Arenado.

The National League couldn’t draw up considerably additional offensively after the to start with inning, and however two speedy household runs gave the American League a direct they wouldn’t relinquish, the NL’s arms held the sport in tact. Just one NL pitcher labored in each and every inning of the activity, and Helsley was assigned to eighth-inning duties.

Helsley retired three of four hitters he confronted, striking out two on some large warmth. The Cardinals’ by-committee closer fired a 103-mph fastball to Minnesota Twins’ infielder Luis Arraez just before in the end placing him out.

Helsley joins Aroldis Chapman as the only pitcher to ever clock 103 miles for each hour in an All-Star Match for the duration of the Statcast period. The 28-12 months-old has been a dependable aid pitcher in most predicaments for the Cardinals this season, savoring a 5-1 record, .69 Era, eight will save and 57 strikeouts around 39 innings.

Albert Pujols, named to the NL All-Star staff as a legacy variety based mostly on career achievements, pinch-hit in the selected hitter location halfway to the game, flying out to the left subject warning keep track of. Miles Mikolas, who was named as a reserve to the NL All-Star group on Sunday, did not pitch. Nolan Arenado, initially named as a reserve to the All-Star recreation at third base, opted out of All-Star festivities because of to back again tightness.

The Cardinals begin their 2nd half of the season with an eight-game highway excursion that rolls by means of Cincinnati, Toronto and Washington D.C.