Rendon finishes third in Final Vote; Baker explains rotation plan

Despite a furious push from the Nationals, Anthony Rendon won't be attending the All-Star Game.

Rendon finished third out of five National League candidates in this year's All-Star Final Vote, losing out to Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner (who earned a ticket to Miami) and Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. Rockies first baseman Mark Reynolds and Marlins first baseman Justin Bour finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Nationals pulled out all the stops over the last three days in trying to encourage votes for Rendon, with teammates and other local celebrities (most notably swimmer Katie Ledecky) stumping for him on Twitter and other social media platforms.

In the end, Rendon couldn't garner enough votes to surpass either Turner or Bryant, who held the top two spots in balloting throughout the process.

Rendon was the sixth Nationals player to appear on a Final Vote ballot in the last nine years. None has ever won the vote, with Ryan Zimmerman (2010) and Ian Desmond (2013) the only ones to finish as high as second place.

Rendon had a strong case for inclusion on the All-Star roster in one form or another. He ranks second among all NL third basemen in WAR and OPS (behind only Turner), third in homers and fourth in RBIs.

* Also not attending the All-Star Game - at least for now - is Gio Gonzalez, who, despite a 2.77 ERA that ranks third in the league, was not selected for the Midsummer Classic in his hometown.

Gonzalez could still wind up making the trip to Miami if he's selected as a replacement for another pitcher who ends up skipping the game. At least one replacement will be needed, with Clayton Kershaw starting for the Dodgers on Sunday and thus making himself ineligible to pitch on Tuesday in Miami.

Los Angeles left-hander Alex Wood (10-0, 1.67 ERA) is the likely choice to replace Kershaw, so Gonzalez probably needs someone else to back out to punch his ticket, even though he had a strong case for inclusion all along.

"I'm sure Perry Mason would love to have this case," manager Dusty Baker said.

Gonzalez will be on the mound tonight facing the Braves, with Tanner Roark consigned to watching from the dugout after his start Wednesday night against the Mets was rained out. The Nationals could have elected to push Roark (and everyone else) back a day but decided to tinker only with Roark's schedule.

"The decision to skip him was to keep Gio - who's pitching good - on his rotation," Baker said. "Tanner has been struggling some. We've got to show confidence in him. We don't know what's going to happen in the next couple days. We might have to skip somebody else tonight or tomorrow or whenever. You've got to adjust and readjust, especially with this threat of weather that we're having."