2019 MLB All-Star Game GameThread: No Nationals in Midsummer Classic

There won’t be any Washington Nationals on the field for the 50th edition of MLB’s All-Star Game, which is being held tonight at 7:30 PM EDT in Cleveland, Ohio’s Progressive Field.

There isn’t even any hope of Max Scherzer running out to prematurely celebrate a walk-off win since the National League is the visiting team in this year’s game.

Scherzer backed out of participating in the Midsummer Classic, after earning a roster spot for the seventh straight season, with back stiffness which cropped up after his start on the road in Detroit late last month and bothered him again after his start this past Saturday.

“We all kind of huddled around and realized it’s probably not smart for me to be pitching in the All-Star Game,” Scherzer explained this past weekend, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “It really couldn’t happen at a better time, where I can get some rest and get eight days now. I need some rest right now to let this thing fully heal up, so that I’m completely good to go for the second half.”

“Our season matters so much more than the All-Star Game,” he added, “that this was an opportunity to gain rest, and not for pitching in the All-Star Game.”

Anthony Rendon, the only other National selected, cited left quad and hamstring issues in explaining his own decision to use the Break to rest and heal up for the so-called “second-half” of the 2019 campaign.

“I am honored to be able to chosen,” Rendon explained, “especially being a player vote, that my peers have that respect for me, and I appreciate it a lot, but since the game doesn’t really mean too much at the moment, except for personal reasons and we have bigger fish to fry here in D.C., so we are trying to get everyone healthy and I’m a part of that as well, so I want to be a big threat for the second half.”

Can’t really question or complain about the thinking in both players deciding to skip the All-Star Game, especially with things going the way they are in Washington.

The Nationals need both of them healthy in the second half, so the rest of the NL roster will have to win it on their own.

We’ll probably watch anyway, though not with as much interest as we would if Rendon was playing and Scherzer was pitching. You? Are you tuning in or taking advantage of the night off from Nationals baseball to do something else?