MIAMI — Sunday night sports shows were live from Marlins Park, replete with on-field shots from where Major League Baseball will assemble Monday and Tuesday.
Among the luminaries are five Washington Nationals players: Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Daniel Murphy, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Zimmerman, Murphy and Harper will start Tuesday night’s game. Scherzer may be the National League’s starting pitcher.
One notable change this year: the game will not determine home field advantage in the World Series. Instead, the pennant winner with the best regular-season record will receive four home games.
“I’m excited it doesn’t mean anything,” Harper said Sunday. “I think the team with the best record should have home field advantage, and that’s how it should be. I’m excited to go down there, just relax and hangout. I’ll face Chris Sale for the third time in my career so I’ll probably tip my cap to him again. It’s a fun event. It’s always exciting to have your teammates there. So excited to have [five] guys that we do, going down there. We’re going to enjoy it and have some fun. And hopefully, relax about it too.”
The managers and players meet with the media Monday afternoon. National League manager Joe Maddon will need to hear from Scherzer about how he is feeling after throwing 120 pitches Friday. Scherzer has thrown the second-most innings in the National League before the All-Star break. He leads the league in ERA, batting average against, WHIP and strikeouts.
Despite multiple injuries, the Nationals go into the break with a healthy 9 1/2 game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East, the largest of any division leader in the National League.
“I thought we played well,” Harper said. “I thought we did a lot of great things as a lineup, as a staff, as a bullpen. I thought everybody played well. We grinded. We didn’t really complain about much. We did the things we needed to do to win ball games. Won some tough ones and lost some bad ones as well. I thought we did great and am excited about this break. I think everybody needed it, especially playing 46 games in the last [48]. It’s pretty crazy, but it shows how good this team can be and how good we are. Mentally and physically, I thought we did great.”
One person who will not be joining Harper, who is going to his fifth All-Star Game, and others in Miami is Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon. He was a candidate for the “Final Vote” but lost to Los Angeles’ Justin Turner. Harper disagrees with Rendon being left home.
“He should be the starting third baseman for the National League this year. Definitely nothing against Nolan Arenado or anybody else that’s there, but that guy has had an unbelievable first half. He’s kept us in ballgames, had innings to win ballgames, played a great third base, and just done everything all around for us. I know he’s excited to go back to Houston and get some rest of course, but he should be down in Florida with us. It’s definitely a bummer, but he’ll get his chance.”
Matthew Paras contributed to this report.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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