LOS ANGELES — So here’s what we have at this celebration of baseball’s greatest stars: one starting pitcher who’s not good enough to be here, one starting pitcher whose manager has never seen him play and one other guy — perhaps you’ve heard of Shohei Ohtani — who isn’t going to toe the rubber at Dodger Stadium at all.
Hey, Tuesday’s All-Star Game will still be a blast.
But National League starter Clayton Kershaw, 7-2 with a 2.14 ERA, feels kind of bad about making his first career All-Star start even though it’s his ninth All-Star go-round, he’s one of the top players of his generation, he’s a first-ballot shoo-in for the Hall of Fame and the game is in his own backyard.