Miami’s Gordon Pulling Away in NL All-Star Voting

If Kolten Wong hopes to receive a spot in next month’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati, Ohio, he’ll need to make up a growing gap in fan voting or hope for an invite to the game from the National League coaching staff.

MLB released its updated fan voting tally for the National League Tuesday, a day after sending out the updated American League numbers. Wong, born in Hilo and currently playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, remains in second place at his second place position, behind Miami’s Dee Gordon.

The gap between the two is growing, as Gordon now holds a comfortable lead of over 1.2 million votes. Last week, Gordon’s lead was considerably smaller at 356,857 votes.

Gordon, second in the NL in batting average (.356) and stolen bases (24) entering Tuesday’s games, holds a total of 5,244,914 votes. That’s followed by Wong’s 4,025,055 fan tallies. Rounding out the top five are San Francisco’s Joe Panik (2,450,837), Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips (2,114,569), and Washington’s Yunel Escobar (1,693,747).

Coming into Tuesday, Wong was batting .283 with eight home runs and 30 runs batted in, staying primarily in the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Fans can vote for their favorite All-Star up to 35 times per e-mail address at MLB.com or on the league’s mobile app. Voting ends at 5:59 p.m. Hawai’i time on Thursday, July 2.

Local FOX affiliate KHON-TV will televise the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 14. ESPN Radio in Hilo and Kona will broadcast the game on AM 850 and AM 790, respectively.