Puig And Butera Shine In Japan All-Star Series Exhibition Game
With the 2014 baseball season over, MLB compiled a roster of 29 players for the Japan All-Star Series that kicked off early Tuesday morning with an exhibition game against a Japanese team assembled with players from the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants.
Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana, who was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 2004, opened the scoring in the fourth inning. Santana stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and broke the scoreless tie with a double play.
After striking out in his first at-bat, Yasiel Puig jumped on the first pitch for an RBI single to right field that extended MLB’s lead to 2-0:
Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria added a grand slam in the fifth inning. However, the MLB team’s comfortable lead was cut to 8-7 in the eighth with Japan threatening to tie the game. That was when Drew Butera took matters into his own hands and picked off the runner on second base to end the inning:
Butera’s pickoff was reminiscent of a play he made against the San Diego Padres in the eighth inning of a tied game. Though the Dodgers ultimately fell in walk-off fashion.
MLB went on to win the game and will play Game 1 of the series Wednesday at 1 a.m. PT, which will be broadcast on MLB Network. The exhibition game will re-air Tuesday night on MLB Network at 6 p.m. PT.
dodgers may sign a 40 year old pitcher but they cant bring back hanley Ramirez come on what a joke.especally with top notch pitchers out there like sherzer or shields,there at least 4 to 5 years younger than kuroda.they should give one of them a big contract. shades of colletti comes back .
bad idea to get rid of kemp hes showing signs of hitting very good again get rid of either or Crawford.why let ethier ride the bench again when he cold start for some other team and we don’t no if joc is going to pan out. wouldnt hurt him to spend another year at triple AAA to learn more about what it takes to make the show.