Boxscore

Last night’s mid-summer classic was almost a little boring after the first inning or so. By that time, the National League had already established a 5-0 lead that would turn out to be more than enough. By the time it was all over, the National League had shut out the American League 8-0.

Matt Cain of the Giants started the parade of pitchers with 2.0 innings of 0 run, 1 hit work. Then came the next 10 guys. Aroldis Chapman was in there somewhere. With 2 outs already in the eighth, he walked Mike Trout on seven pitches. But then he struck out Mark Trumbo swinging on merely 98- and 99-MPH pitches, so he managed to keep the runless streak going.

On the offense, the accolades go to Pablo Sandoval who knocked in 3 in the first inning with a triple. He’s a big guy to be swatting a triple, but hits to right field were causing the AL lots of trouble last night. Ultimately the National League ended up with 3 triples: one from Sandoval, one from Rafael Furcal, and one from Ryan Braun.

Joey Votto went 0-for-3 last night with one strikeout and two ground outs. Jay Bruce came in as a defensive sub in the bottom of the fifth and went 0-for-2. He flied out in the top of the sixth and grounded out in the top of the ninth.

The win brings the National League’s record to 1-0, gives the home advantage in the World Series to the senior circuit, and means we can finally say goodbye to Tony LaRussa. The next game will be in 2013. If the stars align, Dusty Baker will be managing it.

And no, this isn’t a post about Cincinnati Reds flamethrower Aroldis Chapman.

Randall Munroe, the guy behind the web comic XKCD, has launched a new weekly feature where he will answer science questions submitted by readers. Today’s–the first one–just so happens to focus on baseball.

What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?

Typically, hypothetical questions like this are first responded to by how impossible something like that is. To his credit Munroe decides to skip over that and actually answer the question, and it’s an entertaining read.

The ideas of aerodynamics don’t apply here. Normally, air would flow around anything moving through it. But the air molecules in front of this ball don’t have time to be jostled out of the way. The ball smacks into them hard that the atoms in the air molecules actually fuse with the atoms in the ball’s surface. Each collision releases a burst of gamma rays and scattered particles.

These gamma rays and debris expand outward in a bubble centered on the pitcher’s mound. They start to tear apart the molecules in the air, ripping the electrons from the nuclei and turning the air in the stadium into an expanding bubble of incandescent plasma. The wall of this bubble approaches the batter at about the speed of light—only slightly ahead of the ball itself.

That does not sound or look good, and it wouldn’t be. The results would be catastrophic. Read the whole thing, and be sure to stick around for the footnote.

If you’re a fan of XKCD, you might also be interested in this comic I made a few years back.

Boxscore

The Reds wrapped up the first half with a 4-2 win over the Padres last night to take 3 of 4 in San Diego and 6 of 11 in California.

Johnny Cueto was killing it at first, but faltered as the game went on and only ended up serving 5.2 innings. He allowed 2 runs (earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks in that time, but thanks to run support and good relief, he still finished with the win.

Sam LeCure got the next two outs, Sean Marshall the 5 after that, and Aroldis Chapman closed out the last inning. None of the relievers allowed so much as a hit, and Chapman even struck out 2 in the ninth. For the moment, at least, he’s “back.”

The offense was brought to you last night by:

• Jay Bruce, who knocked Brandon Phillips and himself in with a 2-run home run in the fourth inning for half the Reds’ score. If you’re only going to have one run on the night, why not make it this one?
• Ryan Ludwick, who also made the most of his single hit by going back-to-back with Bruce in the fourth.
• Phillips, who broke the 1-hit trend by going 3-for-5 and who also knocked in Zack Cozart in the seventh inning for the Reds’ insurance run.

The win brings the Reds’ record to 47-38. Except for Joey Votto, Bruce, and Chapman, the team is off until Friday when the Reds will host the Cardinals. Mat Latos will take on Adam Wainwright. First pitch at 7:10 p.m.