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American League 6 National League 3
Tonight, on a night filled with stars and hot shot ball players, Mike Trout was the standout talent and talk of the baseball world; for the second year in a row, he would be All Star Game MVP, as well as rack up a slew of other trivia and Trout porn. But perhaps there would be no feat greater than that of getting a national broadcast team to gush harder, or to more effusively worship and adulate him, than how Mike Trout did tonight as he put on what’s become his annual MLB Top Gun showcase.
Mike Trout kicked off things with a bang, hitting an opposite field home run off of Zach Greinke in the first, and giving the A.L. a quick 1-0 lead. It was classic Trout power, a reach to the outside that he just smacked like a flyswatter and nudged it just barely over the right field foul line. This home run gave Mike Trout a quite peculiar footnote to his All Star game: in each of his first AB’s of his four all star games, he has hit a single, double, triple and homer. In that order. He completed some sort of gnarly, obscure achievement in this natural cycle, and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it. He never ceases to amaze.
In the fifth, Mike Trout legged out a fielder’s choice that could have been a double play, and would then eventually be knocked home from second on a Prince Fielder single. It was a hard charging play, classic Trout, and the A.L. now had two runs on the board, one batted in by Trout, BOTH scored by Trout.
His night was over in seventh inning, after he drew a walk, and he would be lifted for Brock Holt. Trout finished going 1-3, with 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB and 2 R. He has a career .500 batting in the summer classic, and is tied for second best all time(minimum 10 ABs). He also got four plate appearances, which is the first time that a player has gotten that many PAs in this game since Jose Reyes in 2007. All in all, it’s an MVP campaign if I’ve ever heard of one, and it really shouldn’t come as any surprise to anybody at this point. The kid’s got the goods; he’s the best in the game, the "white Bo Jackson" as Adam Jones was quoted as saying. He’s not far off: both were freakish athletes, brute strength mixed with blazing speed, game smarts, no fear and a love for the spotlight.
Two All star game MVPs for Mike Trout, and he joins such legends such as Willie Mays, Steve Garvey, Gary Carter and Cal Ripken. That’s some insane company. Of course, none of them ever did it two years IN A ROW. Top that. Your move, MLB He’s repeated this portion of 2014...the All Star game MVP portion...now he just needs to win another MVP at the end of the season. Judging by how he’s looked lately, i’d say it’s pretty much money in the bank.