A week ago, the Indians had three All-Stars in Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor and Brad Hand. A couple days later, Mike Minor had to be replaced on the roster and Shane Bieber was chosen as his replacement. Bieber ended up performing the best of the four tonight.
Despite being worried about the number of questions he was asking, Bieber didn’t show it when he entered the game. In the 5th inning, he faced Willson Contreras, Ketel Marte and Ronald Acuña and struck out all three of them. In a game where no batter had more than one hit, this was enough to make Biebs the MVP in his home park.
He even got to meet Kevin Burkhardt and this dude who hates seemingly everything about baseball:
Shane Bieber started the season as our 5th starter.
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 10, 2019
Tonight, he was named MVP of the #AllStarGame.
The sky is the limit for you, @ShaneBieber19. #RallyTogether pic.twitter.com/glcceremrS
And yes, I’m sure you already heard, one of those things he hates about baseball wasn’t a “problem” tonight, as the game was played in 2 hours and 48 minutes. Every media member who celebrated there being less baseball tonight could stay home next year, ya know?
A thing that even more people loved was the way the city of Cleveland hosted the game. I haven’t heard a single bad thing yet, have you? Even Charlie Blackmon went out of his way to praise the city!
Odds and Ends (Is this a News and Notes? I don’t know. It was going to be, until Bieber went and made headlines.)
• The Cleveland fans still love Michael Brantley, and some really awkward television led to this interview
• With Terry Francona in the dugout, Brad Hand was once again overworked
• Lindor entered the game as a reserve and was struck out by Lawrence Walker-Buehler
• Lindor seems to be really making a push for Dolan’s money. He legitimately loves the team and city he plays for, and that cloud you see over Dolan’s head seems to say “Dammit, he really wants to stay, doesn’t he?”
• Joey Gallo provided a wonderful glimpse of what him hitting bombs as a member of the Progressive Field home team would look like
• A day after finally meeting the man he was traded for, CC Sabathia made a mound visit so that he could get a standing ovation