Indians Shane Bieber Wins MLB All-Star Most Valuable Player After Delighting Cleveland With Lighted Sleeve

Challenging pre-season expectations, right-handed Shane Bieber, 24, was the only member of the Indian rotation to participate in the All-Star Game in 2019. Thanks to his outstanding work at the Fifth inning, Bieber was named The Mid – Summer Classic this year.

Tuesday night, in his baseball stadium, Bieber was summoned to face Willson Contreras of the Cubs, Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks and Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Braves in the fifth inning. He made Contreras watch with a fastball at 95 km / h, then he sniffed Marte on a sharp bend. This brings us to this full count slider in Acuña:

This is called the All-Star Game's scratch, and it sparked a fire under the Cleveland crowd. Talking about that:

.@Indiens Pitcher Shane Bieber is the second all-time pitcher to be eliminated in his own park in his first all-star game, joining Bobby Shantz (1952 at Shibe Park). #RallyTogether#STATSInsights

– Statistics by STATS (@StatsBySTATS) July 10, 2019

And:

In front of a crowd from his hometown of Cleveland to #AllStarGame tonight, @Indiens The reliever Shane Bieber only became the 4th American player to beat the uniform in his only run

– StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) July 10, 2019

Beyond this memorable moment, Bieber has been of paramount importance to the Indians this season. In 112 1/3 in the first half, Bieber had an EER of 3.45, a FIP of 3.35 and a K / BB ratio of 6.13. Given the losses of Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco, Bieber and its 12 starts in quality have stabilized and are essential for the typical Cleveland bedrock rotation. After a slow start to the season, Terry Francona's club returned to the competition, and that does not happen without Bieber.

With an impressive pedigree in the minor leagues and a repertoire of four lengths, Bieber is expected to continue to get great outings and make big starts for Cleveland. In the meantime, he will appreciate his historic performance in the game of stars.