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Four Dodgers selected to NL All-Star team, but not Clayton Kershaw

Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal and starting pitcher Zack Greinke were both named to the National League All-Star team.

Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal and starting pitcher Zack Greinke were both named to the National League All-Star team.

(J Pat Carter / Associated Press)
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For the second consecutive season, the Dodgers had four players selected for the National League All-Star team.

After the Dodgers were shut out in fan voting on Sunday, they did well when reserves and pitchers were announced Monday. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez, catcher Yasmani Grandal, center fielder Joc Pederson and pitcher Zack Greinke all were selected to the National League All-Star team on Monday.

In addition, pitcher Clayton Kershaw was selected as one of five players for the “Final Vote.” If Kershaw is elected in fan voting this week, the Dodgers would have five All-Stars for the first time since 1995, when Mike Piazza, Hideo Nomo, Raul Mondesi, Jose Offerman and Todd Worrell represented the team.

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Although the Dodgers had no starters elected as position players, Greinke is one of the candidates to start as the National League pitcher. Greinke (7-2) leads the major leagues with a 1.48 earned-run average.

The other candidates to start include Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals (9-6, 1.82), Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates (12-3, 2.28) and Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants (8-5, 3.34). The starting pitcher will be selected by Bumgarner’s manager, Bruce Bochy, who earned the right to manage the NL squad because the Giants were NL champions last season.

Bochy bypassed Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw two years ago, when the All-Star game was played in New York, in favor of Matt Harvey, then the rookie sensation of the New York Mets.

Greinke made the All-Star team for the second consecutive season and third time overall. Gonzalez, who made an All-Star team for the fifth time in his career and his first time with the Dodgers, is batting .291 with 15 home runs.

The selections further validated the Dodgers’ then-maligned trade of Matt Kemp to the San Diego Padres, in which the Dodgers got Grandal and cleared an outfield spot for Pederson.

Grandal is batting .277, and he leads NL catchers with 12 home runs and an .890 OPS.

Pederson is batting .234 with 20 home runs, tied for fifth in the league. He is the first rookie to represent the Dodgers in the All-Star game since Nomo in 1995.

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Kershaw (5-6, 3.08) leads the major leagues in strikeouts. If he wins the final vote, the three-time Cy Young award winner and defending NL most valuable player would make his fifth consecutive All-Star appearance.

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