Keuchel adds All-Star to his growing status
CLEVELAND — Even during the ESPN telecast announcing his All-Star selection Monday night, Dallas Kuechel’s name was misspelled in a graphic. Excuse us. Keuchel. Now that’s he headed for the national stage with more players-ballot votes than any other starting pitcher in either league, maybe everyone will finally get that spelling right. Maybe everyone can appreciate just how good King Keuchel — master of the ground ball and purveyor of the double play — really is.
To think, Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon just last year called Keuchel “average,” not all that long after Keuchel broke camp as the Astros’ No. 5 starter of 2014.
Fast forward a year, and the question is whether Keuchel, who was pitching in Monday night’s game against the Indians during the telecast of the All-Star roster announcement, will receive an even higher honor and be named the starter for the AL.
“I never expected this, and it’s not something I dwell on, but to be voted in by the players was a very special moment for me, just because I battled some of those guys and they’re very good players,” Keuchel said after allowing three runs in six innings at Progressive Field. “For my peers to vote me in is a very special moment and something I’ll never forget.”
Everyone knew the Astros ace would be named to the American League team Monday, when the reserves and pitchers for both leagues were announced. The selection is the first for the 27-year-old lefthander, who will be joining threetime All-Star Jose Altuve in Cincinnati on July 14 as one of two Astros players at the 86th Midsummer Classic.
What’s unknown is if he’ll get the ball first.
“I’d like to (start), but nothing that I’m going to fret over,” Keuchel said. “There’s plenty of deserving candidates. I think there’s guys a lot more nasty than I am. I’m just happy to be at the game and watch some of the best players in the world go at it.”
Chris Archer of the Rays, Sonny Gray of the Athletics, Chris Sale of the White Sox and David Price of the Tigers make for stiff competition to be the AL’s starting pitcher. But Keuchel already has beaten the group in one way.
With 384 votes, he had more players-ballot tallies than any other starter. Max Scherzer of the Nationals was second with 354.
AL manager Ned Yost of the Royals will announce his choice of starter the day before next Tuesday’s game.
“I think Dallas is stating his own case,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “I don’t think he needs any of my help. But Ned knows how I feel. There’s multiple guys that have the qualifications to start. I just don’t know that anybody’s been better, and I hope the consideration is strong, because Dallas has certainly anchored everything that we’re doing.”
Clowning achievement
The message reached Keuchel before the game while he was at the team hotel in Cleveland. Hinch, who is on the AL’s coaching staff, gave Keuchel a call.
With Keuchel, sarcasm never fails.
“Did he (talk to me)?” Keuchel said when asked how his conversation with Hinch went before Monday’s game. “I think he’s lying. I’m just kidding. He did.” So how’d it go? “He said, ‘What’s up?’ ” Keuchel recalled. “And I said, ‘Nothing. How you doing?’ And I said, ‘Did I get traded? Released?’
“He said, ‘No, you made the All-Star team.’ And I said, ‘Oh.’
“And it took a minute to kind of sink in, and that was it. And he said, ‘I’ll see you at the field.’ ”
Keuchel said he didn’t phone anyone at that point “because everybody in my family has loose lips.”
Drought breaker
This is the first time the Astros have had more than one All-Star since 2009, when Miguel Tejada and Hunter Pence made the National League team.
Keuchel is the first Astros pitcher to make the All-Star team since Roy Oswalt in 2007 and their first lefthanded starter to do so since Mike Hampton in 1999.
No Astros are on the Final Vote ballot, which allows fans to vote online for the 34th and final spot in each league, picking from five candidates per league.
Keuchel was a Final Vote candidate last year and lost out to Sale.
This year, he was the top choice to make the All-Star team of any starting pitcher.
“It’s a blessing,” Keuchel said of the players’ balloting numbers. “To be voted by my peers is a tremendous honor, and that’s the highest regard that I could ever achieve.”
The Royals, whose fan base’s rabid voting nearly had Omar Infante starting over Altuve, will send six players to the Midsummer Classic, the most in franchise history, after relievers Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera joined four Kansas City players elected to start.
The Cardinals led the NL with five selections as catcher Yadier Molina and pitchers Michael Wacha and Trevor Rosenthal joined starters Jhonny Peralta and Matt Holliday.