NEW YORK (AFP) — Shohei Ohtani earned his fourth consecutive All-Star Game starting spot and Jose Altuve received his sixth overall as rosters for the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game were revealed on Sunday.
Fan voting determined the starters for the National League (NL) and American League (AL) squads that will meet on 16 July at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
New York Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge for the AL and first baseman Bryce Harper of Philadelphia for the NL were decided from the first wave of fan balloting with the remainder of the lineups named in a second round.
For Ohtani, the 30-year-old Japanese designated hitter of the Los Angeles Dodgers, it will mark his first appearance for the NL after three seasons with the AL team when playing for the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani, who has an NL-best 27 home runs this season, shares the longest active streak of All-Star appearances with Judge, who leads MLB with 32 homers and 83 runs batted in and will make his sixth overall All-Star start.
Harper leads all All-Star starters with his seventh overall start.
Houston second baseman Altuve, who will make his sixth All-Star start, is batting .308 with 13 homers and 13 stolen bases.
Altuve joins fellow AL starters Yordan Alvarez of Houston at designated hitter, Juan Soto of the Yankees at outfielder, Cleveland outfielder Steven Kwan and third baseman Jose Ramirez, Toronto first baseman Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson and catcher Adley Rutschman.
It’s the first All-Star start for Alvarez, Kwan, Soto, Henderson and Rutschman.
On the NL side, joining Ohtani and Harper will be Milwaukee catcher William Contreras, Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte, Philadelphia shortstop Trea Turner and third baseman Alec Bohm plus outfielders Christian Yelich of Milwaukee and Jurickson Profar and Fernando Tatis Jr. of San Diego.
Pitchers named to the squads include the hottest of the MLB campaign: 11-win hurlers Seth Lugo, a right-hander, of Kansas City for the AL and Atlanta left-hander Chris Sale for the NL.
