The American League welcomes the National League to Yankee Stadium for the 79th Midsummer Classic on Tuesday night. This will be the fourth and final All-Star contest at the current Yankee Stadium as the New York Yankees get set to move into the new Yankee Stadium in 2009. BetOnline.com has the American League listed as -140 odds home favorites in this contest.
Cliff Lee will be starting for the American League, which would have been a stretch to foresee at the envision at the beginning of the year. Four months ago, Lee was battling to make the cut for the Cleveland Indians rotation, never mind any All-Star ballots.
Lee had a tumultuous 2007 season after he started 0-4 with an 11.70 ERA and was demoted to Triple-A. This year, he's 12-2 at the All-Star break and the Indians have won 86% of the games that he has started.
Lee's main competition for the start was Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays, who leads the league with seven complete games and Justin Duchscherer of the Oakland Athletics, who leads the Majors with a 1.82 ERA.
Lee is the first pitcher from a last place team to start an All-Star game since Washington's Dave Stenhouse in 1962
The National League's starter, Ben Sheets, is much more familiar with the Midsummer Classic. This is the fourth time that Sheets has been named to the All-Star squad.
Sheets may have caught a break to get his first All-Star start. Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who is 13-4 with a 3.23 ERA and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, who is 11-2 with a 2.57 ERA, both pitched on Sunday. Lincecum is arguably the most deserving but Clint Hurdle, who is managing the NL team, probably doesn't have the option to start Lincecum on short rest.
Edinson Volquez of the Cincinnati Reds, who is 12-3 with a 2.29 ERA, threw 114 pitches on Saturday night, which further limited Hurdle's options.
Sheets has never pitched at Yankee Stadium before while Lee hasn't fared so well in the House That Ruth Built. Lee is 1-2 in three starts and has given up 14 earned runs in 14.1 innings pitched.
National League at American League – 8:00 PM ET
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