It felt like a homerun derby with a game inside. Seven homeruns were hit in the United States 10-6 win over the World. Rather than write a narrative of the game my world will do a half inning by half inning breakdown.
Top of First - World Hitting. Just one of three 1-2-3 innings in the game. Mitch Keller made it look easy zipping fastballs at 95-97.
Bottom of First - United States hitting. Jesus Luzardo was reaching 95 with his fastball. He retired the first two hitters but ran the count full to Brendan Rodgers and he ripped a pitch into left center field for a double. Nate Lowe followed bouncing a single up the middle. Rodgers would have scored but centerfielder Luis Basabe bobbled the ball. Lowe’s ambition outran his feet and he was thrown out at second trying to take the extra base.
Top of Second - Justus Sheffield comes into the game for the United States. He throws 93-96 but also mixes in a lot of breaking pitches. Seuly Matias goes the opposite way to crush one into the Nats bullpen. Sheffield settles down and retires the next three hitters but the World has tied the game 1-1.
Bottom of Second - Luzardo works his second inning and strikes out two, Danny Jansen leaving the batter’s box without swinging his bat. Alex Kirilloff hits a one out single.
Top of Third - Sheffield starts the inning and gives up a one out single to right center to Dawel Lugo. That brings on Hunter Greene. He is the only pitcher who hits triple digits with his fastball, consistently hitting 101 to 103. Luis Basabe was the first batter he faced and deposited one of his 102 mile per hour fastballs into the right field bleachers. Fernando Tatis is also not intimidated and lines a single into left field. He steals second and advances to third on a fly out. Seuly Matias can not bring Tatis home, striking out to end the inning.
Bottom of Third - Bryan Mata comes on to start the third and has trouble throwing strikes walking Ke’Bryan Hayes to start the third. Bo Bichette bounces a single up the middle and a wild pitch advances the runners to second and third with just one out. Brendan Rodgers strikes out swinging at a pitch way out of the strike zone. Nate Lowe grounds out to third and the United States blow a scoring opportunity, down 3-2.
Top of Fourth - Greene continues to struggle walking the lead off batter Yordan Alvarez. Luis Urias is hit on his arm protector to put two runners on with no outs. Jesus Sanchez breaks his bat and despite his speed grounds into a 4-6-3 double play. The United States turns to Matt Manning for the third out. Miguel Amaya flies to right.
Bottom of the Fourth - The Aussie Lewis Thorpe comes on to start the fourth. He starts out fast by striking out Keston Hiura. Alex Kirilloff hits a sinking liner into left. Yusniel Diaz tries to make a sliding catch but bobbles the ball and it drops to the grass for a single. Danny Jansen ties the game up at 3-3 pulling a pitch into the left field bleachers. Kyle Lewis walks setting the stage for Ke’Bryan Hayes to blast a pitch over the left field bullpen to give the United States a 5-3 lead. Jesus Tinoco came on to pitch and retired the last two hitters on fly outs to the outfield. Thorpe was throwing a comfortable 93-94.
Top of Fifth - It does not take long for the World to get back in the game. After Matt retired the first two hitters Fernando Tatis lined a single into right field. A wild pitch advanced him to second but it didn’t matter when Yusniel Diaz deposited a pitch into the right centerfield bleachers. Back to back singles by Matias and Alvarez but two runners on. Manning reared back and struck out Urias. For a player who has a history for being tough to strike out Urias was the only player on the World squad to strike out twice in this game.
Bottom of Fifth - The second 1-2-3 inning. Tinoco retired the first two hitters on ground outs. Yoan Lopez came on to face pinch hitter Ryan Mountcastle. Ryan swung and missed at three fastballs crossing the plate at 96-97 miles per hour.
Top of Sixth - Dakota Hudson may have been the second hardest thrower after Greene. His fastball hit 97-98. He retired the International squad in order in the sixth, striking out one.
Bottom of Sixth - The second Aussie came on to pitch. Alex Wells retired the two hitters he faced. Of all the pitchers in the game his fastball was the most pedestrian, hitting just 90-91. He was replaced by South African Kieran Lovejoy who brought the fastball velocity back up to 96-97. Lovejoy gave up a solo shot to Taylor Trammell into the centerfield bleachers, taking his first at bat of the game and giving the United States a 6-5 lead.
Top of Seventh - Shaun Anderson comes in to start the seventh. He has no problems retiring the first two hitters. Yusniel Diaz does a de ja vu, except he sends one of the balls into the Brewhouse in the centerfield bleachers. In that inning Padre Buddy Reed made a nice running catch to rob Padre Fernando Tatis Jr. of a single. After the catch he started to run off the field, possibly forgetting the number of outs. Heliot Ramos pinch hit for Matias, lining a single into center. Brendan Rodgers showed off his defensive chops at second making a sliding stop of a grounder hit by Yordan Alvarez to end the inning.
Bottom of Seventh - Adonis Medina starts the inning. Jo Adell greets him with a double to right center and advances to third on a passed ball. Medina gets back to back K’s, but the second strikeout slips past the catcher to the back stop to allow Rodgers to advance to first. Jo Adell scores. The count went full to Peter Alonso and he hit a skyscraper that soared far above the foul pole, travelled past the bleachers and bounced onto the pavilion. It was the longest homerun myworld has witnessed at Nationals stadium since Albert Pujols hit the pavilion while playing with the Cardinals. Pujols did not hit his ball as high. Keibert Ruiz had to leave the game early in the inning after being hit by a foul tip, bringing out Miguel Amaya for his second appearance of the game. Jorge Guzman gets out of the inning giving up an infield single to Buddy Reed. Luis Garcia makes a diving stop but threw off balance, the ball skipping into the dugout. A second whiff in the game by Andrew Kinzner ends the inning.
Top of Eighth - C.D. Pelham started the inning but failed to get the two hitters he faced out. Peter Alonso waved at a ground ball hit right at him, the ball trickling to right field to put runners at first and third. Kyle Wright came on to pitch. Amaya hit a pitch too shallow into center field to score the go ahead run. Andres Gimenez grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
Bottom of Eighth - Touki Touissaint sees the bottom of the eighth. Taylor Trammell takes Touki deep. He thinks he has his second homer turns to the dugout smiling as he trots past first. Unfortunately the ball hits off the centerfield fence and kicks into right field. Trammell puts on the after burners and makes it to third with a triple, but he probably could have had an inside the park homerun as far as the ball kicked into right field. The first fly to right from Ke’Bryan Hayes did not score Trammell. The second fly from Jo Adell to left field scored Trammell to make it 10-6. Touki was dealing at 95-97 striking out Carter Kieboom. For Carter it was his second whiff of the game in two at bats, not making much of an impression to Nationals fans.
Top of the Ninth - Dylan Cease comes on to retire the first two hitters. The portly Luis Ortiz came on to face Yusniel Diaz. He said something while on the mound that got the players laughing. He only needed one pitch to get Diaz to ground to third to end the game.