ATLANTA — Albeit in unique — and maybe even bizarre — fashion, Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwaber was the National League’s hero and All-Star Game MVP on Tuesday.
After going 0-for-2 in the regularly scheduled event, Schwarber launched three home runs in the All-Star Game’s first “swing-off,” propelling the NL to a victory.
The game was tied at 6 after nine innings, so the teams competed in a three-man Home Run Derby in which American League manager Aaron Boone selected Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Aranda and Randy Arozarena and the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, while NL manager Dave Roberts picked New York’s Pete Alonso, Schwarber and Miami’s Kyle Stowers.
Each player got three swings. Rooker launched two over the fence, while Stowers went 1-for-3. Arozarena then hit one, before Schwarber hit all three out to give the NL a 4-3 running lead entering the final round. Aranda then went 0-for-3, clinching the bizarre National League victory – technically a 7-6 win — the league’s second All-Star Game triumph in three years after dropping the previous nine.
A rule change in 2022 provided what was left of the 41,702 fans with a spectacle they likely weren’t expecting when they entered Truist Park.
“It was interesting,” Schwarber said after being named the Phillies’ first All-Star Game MVP since Johnny Callison in 1964. “Exciting, fun. There’s a lot of guys who deserve this (trophy), but I’m glad it’s going home with us to Philly.”
Fifteen minutes or so before Schwarber hoisted the award, he lined out against Boston flamethrower Aroldis Chapman to begin the bottom of the ninth — a stark difference of what was to come in the impromptu batting practice.
“Luckily, I had just got done breaking my bat on a 100 mile-per-hour sinker from Aroldis, then praying that we’d hit a walk-off home run,” Schwarber laughed. “Then it was just go up there, get a new bat and get ready to take some BP.”
Trailing 6-0, the American League mounted a rally in the seventh, as San Diego’s Adrian Morejon allowed a single to Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk and Aranda’s walk. San Francisco reliever Randy Rodriguez entered and surrendered Rooker’s three-run homer. Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. later drove in the AL’s fourth run on an RBI groundout.
Minnesota’s Byron Buxton and Witt each doubled to pull the AL within one run against San Diego’s Robert Suarez in the ninth. New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz then entered and retired the New York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. before Cleveland’s Steven Kwan tied the game with an infield single.
Chapman retired the side in the bottom of the ninth.
The NL struck first in the home half of the first inning. Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and hometown favorite Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. reached on singles, before Arizona’s Ketel Marte laced a two-run double to right against AL starter Tarik Skubal.
The Detroit Tigers’ reigning Cy Young winner recorded his first strikeout by way of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, Major League Baseball’s experimental technology to determine balls and strikes being used in the game, retiring San Diego’s Manny Machado.
In the sixth, after the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. walked and St. Louis’ Brendan Donovan singled, Alonso belted a three-run blast off Kansas City’s Kris Bubic to give the National League a 5-0 advantage.
It appeared Alonso was on his way to the game’s MVP before the American League’s rally, and he still might have had a chance had his turn arrived in the swing-off.
“It was something that was addressed, we were asked prior,” Alonso said of the swing-off. “I was in the batting cage taking swings, so I was ready if I needed to come in there and close it, but Schwarber did an unbelievable job.”
Detroit’s Casey Mize replaced Bubic, surrendering a 414-foot solo homer to Arizona star Corbin Carroll to extend the margin to six runs.
Making his second All-Star Game start in as many seasons, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes struck out Detroit’s Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene in the first before inducing Yankees slugger Aaron Judge into a groundout in the ace’s lone inning.
“I was throwing every pitch as hard as I could, hoping that it landed in the strike zone,” Skenes said. “Every game is max effort, but I was emptying the tank a little bit more.”
The game marked another return to Atlanta for the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, who took part in his ninth Midsummer Classic. As is custom for Freeman’s appearances at Truist Park since departing the Braves for Los Angeles in 2022, an ovation greeted the first baseman who won a World Series with Atlanta in 2021.
“I didn’t know how it was going to go today. A lot of emotions,” Freeman said. “I really do appreciate the moments, the 12 years I’ve spent here were obviously a wonderful time for me. So, to be able to have that moment with the fans was awesome.”
The game, which lasted three hours and 20 minutes, was the first without a winning and losing pitcher since the infamous 2002 World Series in Milwaukee, which ended in a 7-7 tie. Tuesday marked the highest scoring game since the AL won 8-6 in 10 innings in 2018.
–Jack Batten, Field Level Media
