Wednesday blessed us with six afternoon games, the results of which you can find here. There’s still plenty of baseball left in the evening.
Red Sox starter Steven Wright was named to his first All-Star roster on Tuesday. The noted knuckleballer is second in the American League in ERA at 2.42, behind the Indians’ Danny Salazar at 2.36. He is being considered to start the All-Star Game at Petco Park next Tuesday.
Knuckleballers haven’t typically been featured in All-Star Games for a host of reasons. They’re a rare breed. They’re inconsistent. As good as R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield have been, they have respective career ERA’s of 3.97 and 4.41. They also need a catcher capable of catching the knuckleball. The American League has three catching options: Salvador Perez, Matt Wieters, and Stephen Vogt. Perez is the starter, as he received by far the most votes from fans. Perez has never caught a knuckleballer, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports notes. Wright is proving to be an interesting wrinkle, as AL manager Ned Yost has to navigate his way around some extra variables.
Wright starts tonight opposite Rangers starter Martin Perez in a 7:10 PM EDT start at Fenway Park.
The rest of Wednesday night’s action…
Kansas City Royals (Ian Kennedy) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Marcus Stroman), 7:07 PM EDT
Los Angeles Angels (Jered Weaver) @ Tampa Bay Rays (Drew Smyly), 7:10 PM EDT
New York Yankees (Michael Pineda) @ Chicago White Sox (Miguel Gonzalez), 8:10 PM EDT
Seattle Mariners (Wade LeBlanc) @ Houston Astros (Mike Fiers), 8:10 PM EDT
Pittsburgh Pirates (Jeff Locke) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Jaime Garcia), 8:15 PM EDT
San Diego Padres (Colin Rea) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (Shelby Miller), 9:40 PM EDT
Colorado Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa) @ San Francisco Giants (Johnny Cueto), 10:15 PM EDT
