Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers Voted In As All-Star Starters For American League
BOSTON (CBS) -- MLB announced the starters for this summer's All-Star Game on Thursday night. The left side of the American League infield will be all Red Sox.
As somewhat expected, both shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers were voted in as starters for the Midsummer Classic.
The 28-year-old Bogaerts is an All-Star for the third time of his career. Bogaerts is batting .329 with a .941 OPS. He's hit 13 home runs and driven in 48 runs.
Bogaerts previously made the All-Star team as a starter in 2016 and as a reserve in 2019.
For the 24-year-old Devers, this marks his first All-Star Game appearance. After a 3-for-5, five-RBI day vs. the Royals, Devers is hitting .288 with a .941 OPS. He leads all AL third basemen with 20 home runs, and his 69 RBIs are most in MLB.
Two other Red Sox players -- DH J.D. Martinez and outfielder Alex Verdugo -- made it to the second round of All-Star voting, but neither made the team as a starter.
Bogaerts received 42 percent of the votes in the second phase of the voting, beating out Bo Bichette (37%) and Carlos Correa (21%). Devers garnered 61 percent of the vote at third base, beating out Alex Bregman (22%) and Yoan Moncada (16%).
Martinez seems like he will be a likely choice to make an All-Star team for the fourth time of his career, though he was not voted in as a starter. Reserves will be announced Sunday at 5:30 p.m. He was a starter in 2018 and 2019, and a reserve in 2015, when he was a member of the Tigers.
With 63 percent of the vote, Shohei Ohtani earned the starting spot at DH over Martinez, who finished second at 20 percent.
Alex Verdugo also made it through the first round of voting in the outfield, but he was not in the top three vote-getters for a starting spot.
The full starting lineup for the AL, as voted by fans, is below:
C Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays
2B Marcus Semien, Toronto Blue Jays
SS Xander Bogaerts, Boston Red Sox
3B Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox
OF Teoscar Hernandez
OF Aaron Judge
OF Mike Trout
DH Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels
The All-Star Game will be held on Tuesday, July 13, at Coors Field in Denver.
