ATLANTA — Take a bow, commissioner Rob Manfred. Your league just pulled off one of the most exciting All-Star Games ever and the cherry on top was the conclusion. That is, a home run swing-off between three players from each league took the place of extra innings. It was glorious.
Sure, this isn’t how normal baseball games are supposed to end, but the All-Star Game isn’t a normal baseball game. It’s a showcase meant to be fun for the fans. Quick, what is more fun: Watching teams desperately try to scrape together pitching in extra innings in a meaningless game or seeing three sluggers taking three swings apiece in hopes of hitting the most homers?
That’s an easy answer, as long as you enjoy fun and don’t take this game too seriously. And you shouldn’t. The All-Star Game is an event that showcases the best players in baseball and is meant to be nothing more than mindless fun.
The game itself before the swing-off was amazing, too.
Kyle Schwarber named MLB All-Star Game MVP: Phillies slugger leads National League to thrilling swing-off win
Mike Axisa
The National League jumped on the best pitcher in the world in Tarik Skubal, scoring two runs in the first inning, though two of the hits were lightly struck and well placed. Then we saw a bunch of great pitching and defense for a few innings. Pete Alonso hit a home run and Corbin Carroll followed to make it back-to-back jacks for the National League. Keep in mind, the Alonso shot was only the third Mets All-Star Game home run ever.
Remember how Brent Rooker was eliminated from the Home Run Derby via a distance tiebreaker that he lost by less than an inch? He slugged a three-run homer in this one. It started an AL comeback that saw the junior circuit come from a 6-0 deficit to tie the game in the ninth.
That ninth inning, too, was awesome. Byron Buxton started things off for the AL with a hustle double with one out and the American League trailing by two. Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a double. Witt moved to third on an exceptional play by Matt Olson at first base for the second out and then Steven Kwan battled with two strikes to hit a dribbler to third base that was just slow enough to get him through the bag to beat Eugenio Suárez’s throw on in impressive effort.
The AL tied the game. It was awesome.
But we were only getting started. Then came the first-ever Home Run Derby swing-off tiebreaker.
Rooker, continuing his shot at redemption in a storyline gifted by the baseball gods, clubbed two homers in three swings. The AL had a 3-1 lead when the second hitter for the NL, the hulking Kyle Schwarber, stepped into the box.
All three of his swings resulted in home runs. A day earlier, Schwarber told me he doesn’t want to be known as a hitter who only hits home runs, even as he embraces the fact that hitting home runs is the best thing he does on the field. He came through here and was named the MVP of the All-Star Game.
The only thing that wasn’t amazing here was that Jonathan Aranda failed to hit a home run to tie things up for the AL, because that would’ve brought Alonso to the plate in an attempt to walk off the Derby tiebreaker.
Still, that’s just nitpicking.
To get to see this unfold in person was so much fun. The thousands of fans who remained in the ballpark had an incredible treat. This was the first time something like this had ever happened, first of all. Secondly, it really could have been a dud. We could have seen a few tired players get up there and lay eggs in the box, struggling to a 0-0 tiebreaker which would’ve drawn national mockery. Instead, the players stepped up, especially Schwarber.
And, again, the whole game was great.
Kudos to Major League Baseball. That was one hell of an All-Star Game.
This news was originally published on this post .
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