The National League needed a historic swing-off to win the 95th MLB All-Star Game, defeating the American League at Truist Park.
The final score officially goes down as a 6-6 nine-inning tie, with the NL winning the home run swing-off 4-3 to claim the victory.
Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber went 3-for-3 during the tiebreaker to clinch the Senior Circuit’s second win in three years. Schwarber took home All-Star Game MVP honors for the performance.
Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda, the AL’s final swinger, narrowly missed tying the swing-off with a shot off the top of the right-field wall.
The AL had come back from down 6-0 to tie it in the ninth inning on Steven Kwan’s infield single off New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz to sent the contest to a swing-off. Had the AL pulled out the win, it would have been the largest comeback in All-Star Game history.
“That was crazy. That was great. I think that was the best thing that happened in an All-Star Game,” Díaz said, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. “I blew the game, but I was happy after I heard there was going to be a Home Run Derby.”
MLB introduced the swing-off tiebreaker to the All-Star Game in 2022, but it’s never been needed until Tuesday night. Each league selected three players to take three swings, with the most homers winning the game.
“I’ve got a group text going with a couple of other players around baseball … and they said that we should never play an extra-inning game again,” San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb said, according to Jayson Stark of The Athletic. “Just do it like that.”
The swing-off was introduced after years of controversy regarding how All-Star Games ended. The 2002 contest infamously ended in a tie that led MLB to briefly use the Midsummer Classic to determine home-field advantage in the World Series. In 2008, both teams nearly ran out of pitchers when the game went 15 innings.
This was the first All-Star Game to require any form of additional play beyond the ninth inning since 2018.
The NL got off to a hot start. Starting pitcher Paul Skenes tossed a perfect first inning, and Ketel Marte ripped a two-run double off AL starter Tarik Skubal in the bottom of the first. Pete Alonso extended the NL’s lead with a three-run homer in the sixth, and Corbin Carroll followed Alonso with his own solo shot.
But the Junior Circuit wouldn’t go quietly. Brent Rooker cut the NL’s lead in half with a three-run homer in the seventh off Randy Rodríguez, and Bobby Witt Jr. brought home a fourth run on an RBI groundout.
Witt’s RBI double off Robert Suarez plated Byron Buxton to make it 6-5, setting the stage for Kwan’s tying infield hit. Aroldis Chapman then pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth to force the swing-off.
The NL’s victory is only its fifth since 1997, running its All-Star record to 48-45 with two ties.
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