Wil Myers Earns All-Star Start

Padres 1st baseman in the lineup for the 2016 All-Star Game

The magical season for Wil Myers continued on Monday. The Padres 1st baseman found out that not only is he a first-time All-Star in his home ballpark, but he's going to be in the starting lineup, batting 4th as the National League's designated hitter.

That must have been a fun conversation to have with Mets Manager Terry Collins, who is the NL skipper and undoubtedly would have called and told Myers about it. Right?

“I saw it on Twitter,” said Myers. “I found out on Twitter so I have not had that conversation with him yet.”

Welcome to 2016! Myers says he was not actively looking on social media to see what the lineup was going to be.

“No, I was just scrolling through Twitter on the two minutes of down time I’ve had and saw it. I’m obviously very excited about it, very honored just to be out there taking the field with the starters.”

Collins actually told the media before he told Myers and explained why he put Wil in the starting lineup. Part of it had to do with the fact the game is in San Diego. Another part of it is he had a pretty good idea White Sox lefty Chris Sale would get the start for the American League.

"We wanted to get a right-handed bat in the lineup if we could against Sale," said Collins. "Wil has had a tremendous season. I got my staff involved and they came up with three names (to be the DH) and Myers was one of them. He's used to playing [at Petco Park] more than anybody else. We think he's capable of putting runs on the board for us."

That strategy would make sense. Myers has hit 19 home runs this season and 13 have come at Petco Park (a fact I’m sure he came across on Twitter). The entire National League starting lineup looks like this:

1)    2B Ben Zobrist, Cubs
2)    RF Bryce Harper, Nationals
3)    3B Kris Bryant, Cubs (by way of the University of San Diego)
4)    DH Wil Myers, Padres
5)    C Buster Posey, Giants
6)    1B Anthony Rizzo, Cubs
7)    CF Marcell Ozuna, Marlins
8)    LF Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies
9)    SS Addison Russell, Cubs
P Johnny Cueto, Giants

The American League will counter with this starting 10 from Royals manager Ned Yost:

1)    2B Jose Altuve, Astros
2)    CF Mike Trout, Angels
3)    3B Manny Machado, Orioles
4)    DH David Ortiz, Red Sox
5)    SS Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox
6)    1B Eric Hosmer, Royals
7)    RF Mookie Betts, Red Sox
8)    C Salvador Perez, Royals
9)    LF Jackie Bradley Jr., Red Sox
P Chris Sale, White Sox

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