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Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

MLB roundup: Introducing your 2016 All-Star Game starting pitchers

Chicago White Sox left-hander Chris Sale is ready to fire it up for an inning tonight for the American League in the MLB All-Star Game, while San Francisco Giants righty Johnny Cueto will get the ball for the National League.

Some more on tonight's starting pitchers, from Sarah Langs of ESPN Stats & Information. First some notes on Cueto:

• Cueto is the third Giants pitcher to start the game in the past 10 seasons, following Tim Lincecum (2009) and Matt Cain (2012). No other NL team has had multiple starters in that span. The last team to have three starters in a 10-year span was … the Giants, from 2003 to 2012, with Jason Schmidt (2003) preceding Lincecum and Cain.

• Cueto made the All-Star team in 2014, but did not pitch in the game.

• Cueto will be the first Giants pitcher to start in a California-hosted All-Star game since Rick Reuschel in 1989 at Anaheim Stadium, and the fourth of the Giants' nine All-Star starters to do so in-state. The others: Vida Blue in 1978 at San Diego Stadium and Juan Marichal in 1967 at Anaheim Stadium.

• From Elias Sports Bureau: A member of the Royals for part of last season, Cueto is the second pitcher to start an All-Star game against an opposing manager he pitched for in the previous season, joining Astros pitcher Roger Clemens in 2004 (opposite Yankees manager Joe Torre).

And some interesting tidbits about Chris Sale:

• He is the seventh White Sox pitcher to start the All-Star game and the first since Mark Buehrle in 2005. The last two White Sox pitchers to start the game each pitched two scoreless innings. The last White Sox player to start the All-Star Game and surrender a run was Early Wynn in 1959.

• Sale will be pitching in the All-Star Game for the fourth time overall and first time since 2014. In that game, he gave up a run in his only frame (the fourth inning) on a Jonathan Lucroy double.

• Sale leads the majors with 14 wins. That's just three wins shy of his career high (17) in 2012.

• The White Sox tower over their North Side rivals in the All-Star pitching department: They've have had seven starters all time, compared to the Cubs' one (Claude Passeau in 1946).

• Sale isn't near the top of the league in ERA (3.38), but he's fourth in WHIP (1.04) and has been durable late into games unlike any other American League pitcher, as the corresponding table shows. The last time either All-Star starter was outside the top 10 in his league in ERA at the break was in 2006, when Kenny Rogers, ranked 18th in ERA, started for the AL. His opponent, Brad Penny, was ranked third in the NL, just like Cueto is.

• The AL hasn't given up a run in the first inning since 2012, when the NL scored five off Justin Verlander on RBI hits from Ryan Braun (2B), Pablo Sandoval (3B) and Dan Uggla (1B).

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