BUFFALO, N.Y. — Wil Myers has spent this week making a major name for himself in minor league baseball.
The Kansas City Royals prospect drove in one run and scored another to lead the Pacific Coast League to a 3-0 win over the International League in the Triple-A All-Star game Wednesday.
Myers finished with a pair of hits for his second impressive All-Star showing in four days. The 21-year-old outfielder had three RBI on Sunday in the Futures Game in Kansas City, Mo., a showcase for top prospects during Major League Baseball’s All-Star festivities.
“It was a lot of fun,” Myers said. “This was the most fans I’ve ever played in front of in a minor league stadium.”
A sellout crowd of 18,025 turned out in Buffalo, the site of the first Triple-A All-Star game in 1988. The city has recorded two of the three biggest crowds in the game’s history.
Buffalo Bisons pitcher Matt Harvey, a New York Mets prospect, worked two shutout innings in front of the hometown fans. He retired six of his seven batters to earn the Star of Stars award for the International League.
Myers was selected Star of Stars for the Pacific Coast League, which snapped a three-game losing streak. The PCL has won seven of the 15 games played under the interleague format.
Both Tacoma Rainiers in the game, Luis Antonio Jimenez and Guillermo Quiroz, went 0-for-2.
Jimenez, who played the entire game as the PCL’s designated hitter, struck out once, grounded out once and walked twice. Quiroz, who pinch-hit in the sixth inning and played the rest of the game at catcher, struck out in both of his at-bats.
Myers viewed his All-Star accomplishments as merely one step toward his eventual goal of a big league call-up.
“It’s cool to come out here and get the MVP award,” he said. “It’s something I’ll always remember. Hopefully the call-up will be even better. It could obviously happen at any time.”
Myers, currently with the Omaha Storm Chasers, singled home a run in the first inning to give the PCL a 2-0 lead. He led off the fourth with a double and scored on an RBI double by L.A. Dodgers prospect Tim Federowicz of the Albuquerque Isotopes.
Mike Hessman of Oklahoma City (Houston Astros) drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly.
PCL pitchers combined to allow five hits while striking out 11. International League hurlers also fanned 11.
“It seems like everybody throws 95 (mph) now on both ends,” said Buffalo’s Valentino Pascucci, who won the Triple-A Home Run Derby on Monday and had a double and three walks in Wednesday’s game.
The shutout was the fifth in the event’s 25-game history and the second consecutive. The IL won last year, 3-0.
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