MLB All-Star Game Recap: The American League Does it Again! Dominant Pitching Steals the Show

Hey babes!

The American League made it 11 wins in the last 13 All-Star Games with a 4-0 shutout over the National League in the 96th Midsummer Classic ~

In this special All-Star recap, we’re breaking down:

• How the American League jumped out to an early lead
• Christopher Sánchez’s difficult first inning
• Why Dylan Cease was one of my favorite players to watch
• Cody Bellinger’s MVP-winning performance
• Miguel Vargas’ memorable home run in his first All-Star Game
• The incredible pitching performances that defined the night
• My favorite moments from the broadcast, including the mic’d-up pitcher and catcher conversations

Plus, we look ahead to next year’s All-Star Game at Wrigley Field and talk about why this year’s game was such a fun showcase for baseball fans who love great pitching.

Thanks for joining me in the softest corner of sports media. 

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Transcript

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Hey babe, welcome to Baseball for Girls, where baseball meets soft girl energy. I'm Shaunacy, and here we do baseball with heart, humanity, and a little humor. So whether you're brand new to the game or deep in your baseball era, you're in the right place. So grab something cozy, settle in, and let's get into today's episode. Let's play ball. It was such a good game. I was so tired. I think that it ended a little after 11, and I just felt so old. I was like, this is so past my bedtime right now. Like I'm usually falling asleep at this point. But I was forcing myself to stay awake because I just had to see it end. And it was completely worth it to see the American League win yet another all-star game. That was their, I believe it was their 11th win out of the past 13 All-Star games. So the American League continues to dominate. So this year's All-Star Game was the 96th edition of the game. They also like to call it the Midsummer Classic. The starting pitchers were Christopher Sanchez and Dylan Sees. So Christopher Sanchez is from the Philadelphia Phillies, and Dylan Sees is from the Toronto Blue Jays. The managers for this year's All-Star Game for the American League, it was John Schneider. He is the manager for the Toronto Blue Jays. And for the National League, their manager was Dave Roberts, who is the manager for the LA Dodgers. So they choose the managers based on whoever won the league championship in the previous year. And we know that the Blue Jays and the Dodgers went to the World Series last year. And so those are the two managers that were chosen to lead their respective leagues. So you might also be wondering how do they decide which team is technically the home team for the All-Star Game? And basically, it's always going to be based on the league of the team that's hosting the All-Star Game that year. So this year, the Philadelphia Phillies were hosting the All-Star Game at Citizen Bank Stadium in Philadelphia. And so we know that the Phillies are in the National League, so the National League was the home team for this year. And that matters just because when we get to the ninth inning, if the home team is losing, we get a bottom of the ninth. But if the home team is winning, then the game ends at the top of the ninth. So that's what they refer to in baseball when they are talking about the home team advantage. But anyway, Christopher Sanchez was the starting pitcher for the National League. Like I mentioned, he's from the Philadelphia Phillies. So he was the first pitcher in the first inning of the All-Star game. I believe I mentioned previously that the All-Star game is kind of more of a bullpen game. So that just means that different pitchers are coming out every single inning. But the first pitcher was Christopher Sanchez. He had the fifth longest scoreless streak for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history. His scoreless streak was 52-thirds innings. And just for comparison, the longest one is 59 innings, and that happened in 1988 by Oral Hersheiser. And Sanchez's streak started in April and it ended on June 3rd of this year. He did win his most recent game, which was versus the Tigers this past weekend, but he did lose last week when the Phillies played Kansas City. It was that blowout game where I believe it was 15 to 1 or something like that when the Phillies went to Kansas City. In that game, he actually gave up nine runs in three and one-third innings. And just as a reminder, so when I say like one third of an inning, that just means we he entered into the fourth inning and he only got one out. So we only got one out of the three outs of that inning. So we say it's one-third of an inning. So he was starting to struggle a little bit. In his game over the weekend, I believe he only gave up two runs and he was still able to get the win just because the Phillies were able to get enough runs so that he could also so that Sanchez could get that win. But Dylan Sees, on the other hand, he won his last two games. One was versus the Giants, where he only gave up one hit in eight innings. And his other game that he won was versus the Mariners, where he gave up three hits but no runs in seven innings. So in both of those games, he did not give up any runs, and he played at least seven innings. So that's just a little bit of background for both of those pitchers. What I really liked though is that Dylan Sees and Shay Langaliers, so Shea Langaliers is the catcher for the Sacramento Athletics. I actually don't know where they are now, but it used to be Oakland. I know that they're not in Oakland anymore. Anyway, he is the catcher for the athletics. They were wearing mics during the game, well, during Dylan Cease's inning. And at first I was like, what are they doing? Like, do not distract my pitcher, please. I don't want him talking to you while he's supposed to be working. Like the pitcher is the last one I want to be distracted right now. But he was really good. He didn't have any hits. He had one walk and three strikeouts in his one inning, and he got the win based on this inning. And honestly, I really liked that they were mic'd up. It was really interesting hearing them speak to each other. So we were really listening in on the conversation between Dylan Sees and Shay Langaliers. I've mentioned before that we know that the pitcher and the catcher are in constant communication. In the before times, they used to have this like the catcher would be doing like little symbols and like hand movements and like secret little movements that only the pitcher would understand kind of thing. Now we have the pitch comm, so the pitch communicator, where the catcher can like press a button, and I guess it just like presses it, like makes a noise in the pitcher's ear or something like that. I actually don't know exactly how that works, but they're not actually speaking to each other. But because they were both mic'd up for this specific thing that Fox likes to do, so the game was held on Fox. I think I said that it was on Netflix. I was wrong. It was actually on Fox. I was like freaking out trying to find it because I thought it was on Netflix. Um, so I do apologize for that inaccuracy. I was definitely punished for it, so don't worry. Anyway, so they were able to speak to each other, and it was just so interesting. Like hearing him make decisions based on like the pitch that he just threw, or being like, oh, I'm gonna throw this pitch again. It was actually really interesting. So if anything, I definitely recommend watching that bottom of the first inning where you can listen to that communication between Dylan Cease and Shayla Langaliers. But okay, so you probably know. I hope this isn't really a spoiler. I mean, this whole episode is gonna be a spoiler. But the American League won the All-Star Game four to zero. So they completely shut out the National League. So a shutout game is when the other team just doesn't score at all. And that was the first time that's happened in 13 years, apparently. So it was definitely a big deal. And honestly, all the action happened in the very first inning, in the top of the first. So I'll walk through what kind of happened in that first inning. And like I just gave you that background on Christopher Sanchez. So he was pitching in the top of the first inning. He had been kind of struggling at the beginning of his struggle, I would say, for this second half of the season, but he still was the first pitcher in this game. And so the very first pitch that he threw was a strike, super good sign. He struck out Mike Trout, super good sign for him again, like for Sanchez. But then the designated hitter for the Astros, Jordan Alvarez, who we talk about all the time in the home run leaderboards, he hit a single. It was a one-out single, and that was on a 1-1 count. I like to know like which count they got their hit on or like a home run on. Just because I'm a pitcher's girl, so I'm like, how did that pitcher, how was that pitcher doing, you know? I believe that I was keeping score for this game, but I don't have my scoreboard in front of me right now. But just looking at game day on the MLB app, the first pitch that Sanchez threw to Jordom Alvarez was a ball, and then the second pitch was a swinging strike, and then the third pitch he hit a single. So that single was on a 1-1 count, and so Alvarez then was on first base. The next batter was Shea Langaliers, like I mentioned, the cat the catcher from the athletics, and Sanchez it actually gave him a four-pitch walk. So that was not that was not good. That was not a great sign to see. Shea Langaliers is not someone that you're trying to pitch around. So I was kind of confused. I thought that maybe he was doing it on purpose at first, but then I was like, no, there's no reason for Sanchez to be trying to pitch around Langaliers. So by pitch around, I just mean like sometimes pitchers will purposefully just throw four balls in a row because they don't want that hitter to like to hit the ball. They think that that hitter will definitely hit a home run or hit a single or something. So they'll pitch around them and just like let that pitch look let that batter walk. But there was no reason for him to do that. And then the next batter was Junior Camonero. We know him as the third baseman from the Tampa Bay Rays. He grounded out um to the pitcher, and then the pitcher threw it to the first baseman, who was Freddie Freeman from the Dodgers. Um, so it was a 1-3 ground out. So now there's two outs in this inning, and Bobby Witt Jr. comes to the plate. He walks on a 3-2 count so that it was a little bit better. The first two pitches were a strike, and Sanchez was just not able to get Bobby Witt out. The next four pitches were balls, and so then Bobby Witt walked, and now the bases are loaded for Cody Bellinger, who is the right fielder for the New York Yankees. And so Bellinger comes up and he actually hits a single on a 2-2 count, where again, Sanchez threw the first pitch as a strike, second pitch a strike, but then the next two pitchers were balls. And now Bellinger has seen enough. He's now able to hit a single. So it really shows that Sanchez was struggling to get that last out, that very elusive last out, as they sometimes say. And he was really just struggling to put batters away. And we know that he did strike out Mike Trout as the first batter in this lineup. But when we look at the at bat, the first pitch he threw to Mike Trout was a strike, but it was a foul, a foul ball. So Mike Trout was definitely in swing mode. So he fouls off the first pitch, so it counts as a strike. The next two pitches are balls, and then he hits another foul ball, another foul ball, and then a swinging strike. So it really was that honestly, Mike Trout just wanted to swing the bat. He was getting contact, but that was probably just because Mike Trout was looking to swing. And that's really the conclusion we can draw after seeing how Sanchez was performing for the rest of this inning because he was struggling so much. So when Cody Bellinger hits his single, it scores two runs. So that's kind of phrased like a two-run single. If you ever hear it phrased like that, it just means that two runs were able to score whenever this person hit a single. So now Cody Bellinger is at first base, and Alvarez and Langaliers were able to score the runs. But if we remember, Bobby Witt Jr. also had a walk. So now Bobby Witt Jr. is on third base. Cody Bellinger is on first. And so we have what they call runners on the corners. And that is when Ben Rice comes to the plate. We know Ben Rice as the first baseman from the New York Yankees and from the home run leaderboard. He was third this week in the home runs. I believe he had 29 home runs. He doesn't hit a home run in this game, spoiler, but he does hit a two-out single that ends up scoring a run. So he has a one-run single, is how you could say that. And that hit was on a 0-1 count. So the very first pitch, again, was a strike, but then the next pitch, Ben Rice, was able to hit a single. And that allows for Bobby Witt to score. And the last batter in this inning was Riley Green. He just ends up striking out, also strikes out swinging. The at bat was very similar to the Mike Trout out at bat. And maybe we can really just chop this up to those batters were antsy. They really wanted to swing. They really want to be the guy who hits the home run, you know, and so they just came out swinging. And then that's how they got out. If they had been a little bit more patient at the plate, who knows? They might have been able to get a walk or something else. But San Jets ends up giving up three runs in one inning. And that two-run single that Cody Bellinger hit ends up making him win the MVP of the entire game. So nothing else happens basically for the rest of the entire game until the seventh inning, where Miguel Vargas hits a home run. So Miguel Vargas was actually not even in this game originally. I mean, he was always a backup person, but in the top of the third inning, O'Brien, who is a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, ends up hitting Junior Camonero in the hand. Luckily, when Junior Camonero went to get x-rays on his hand, it wasn't broken or anything, so junior should be fine. But that did mean that Camonero was out of the game for the rest of the game, and Miguel Vargas entered the game. So Miguel is the third baseman for the White Sox. And in the eighth, in the top of the eighth inning, he was able to hit a home run. Sorry, I think I might have said seventh earlier. It was definitely the top of the eighth inning. He hit that home run off of the Dodgers pitcher Justin Robleski. And that was on a 2-0 count. So that was two balls and no strikes. And then Robleski was able to get the last two outs after that. So that was a one-out home run. There was no one on base or anything. So it was just a home run. But I'm sure that was so exciting and so fulfilling for Miguel Vargas, who kind of wasn't even really supposed to play. I mean, only really was able to play because someone else was no longer able to. But nevertheless, comes in, makes a difference. And now we can say that in his very first all-star game ever, he hit a home run off of a Dodgers pitcher, which I mean that's pretty incredible. So congrats to him. So the American League really dominated last night, like I mentioned. All of the American League pitchers really showed their stuff. There were a lot of pitchers who had one, two, three innings, which just means that there was no hits. Three batters came up and three batters went down. And so those pitchers were Parker Mesick from The Guardians, Michael Walka from the Kansas City Royals, Nick Martinez from the Tampa Bay Rays, Cade Smith from The Guardians. And well, there was one inning where Drew Rasmussen from the Tampa Bay Rays and Jacob Latz from the Texas Rangers. They kind of just split that inning where Rasmussen got the first two outs and then Latz got the last out, but there was no hits or walks recorded in that inning. So they started doing that towards the end just because they were running out of innings and they still had a bunch of pitchers who wanted to, you know, pitch in the all-star game. So they combined had a clean inning. But Louis Varland from the Blue Jays, he had one hit in his inning. Arolis Chapman got two outs, but no hits, and he split that final inning with Brian Baker from the Tampa Bay Rays. And Chapman, we know, is from the Red Sox. But Brian Baker did have one hit, but he was able to get the final out in the All-Star game. Unfortunately, for both of them, it wasn't a save situation just because there were more than three runs on the board, but it was still impressive and fun to watch nonetheless. For the National League, there were three pitchers that had clean innings, and that was Eduardo Rodriguez from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jesus Lozardo from the Philadelphia Phillies, and Foster Griffin from the DC Nationals. But the American League pitching staff only had two walks for the entire game, and they had 15 strikeouts overall. On the other hand, the National League had seven hits, four runs, two walks, and twelve strikeouts with one home run. And like I mentioned, Cody Bellinger was the one who won the Ted Williams MVP award for the All-Star Game. And it was really just based off of that two run single in the very first inning. And they even asked him, like, did you think that you were going to win MVP off a single? And he was like, No. And he also kind of mentioned, like, you never know in baseball, like it's so unpredictable kind of thing. So the MVP was someone that was voted on. So we got like a notification on our phones that it was time to vote for the MVP for the All-Star game. I voted for Dylan Sees just because I thought it was incredibly impressive to be talking to someone, like talking to, you know, America, uh, while trying to pitch in the All-Star Game in the very first inning. I thought that was really cool. And not only that, but not give up a hit and have three strikeouts in the inning. And he was the only pitcher from the American League to get all three strikeouts in his inning. So I think Dylan Sees should have got the MVP, but my vote didn't count enough, I guess. But I'm really glad that Dylan Sees was on the American League this year and not the National League because Dylan Sees, we know, was on the Padres last year, maybe the year before, but very recently he was traded to the Blue Jays. And so we know the Padres are in the National League. The only Padre that was at the All-Star Game this year was Mason Miller. We know Mason Miller as the star closer for the Padres. He has 20 25 out of 25 saves. So that means out of 25 save opportunities, he's gotten all of them. He's not lost a save yet for the Padres, knock on wood. He only faced one batter, I believe, in the top of the ninth, just so that he could, you know, say that he pitched in the All-Star Brear. But overall, I thought the All-Star game was so much fun to watch. I guess mostly because I'm in the American Link and the American Link won again, but you know. I hope that from watching this, you were able to choose maybe your new favorite pitcher. I mean, I always liked Dylan Sees, but now I like him even more. I also really liked Michael Waka from the Kansas City Royals. I knew he was a really good pitcher, but I never really paid him much attention. The other pitcher that I really liked was Foster Griffin from the DC Nationals. He right now has a 10-2 record for the Nationals, so 10 wins to two losses over all this year. And I really liked his story. I believe they said that he was a 30-year-old rick rookie who got hurt the very first year that he tried to be an MLB, I believe, and then he went to Japan for a few years, and now he's back and able to be in the big leagues, and in his first year he was able to be an all-star. So I thought that was just like a really nice story. So I'll definitely be watching out for Foster Griffin now. I also really like Brian Baker, who's now the closer for the Rays. He was playing for the Baltimore Orioles, I guess maybe now two years ago, and he was not good. Okay. I'd be like, oh my god, please don't. Please do not bring out Brian Baker. He lost so many games with for the Orioles. And they did make a comment about that during the game. They gave like the exact statistics or whatever. But now that he's on the Rays, he's flourishing. And when he got that first hit in the bottom of the ninth inning, I was like, oh god, here comes Brian. Are we about to lose all of a sudden? But no, I I mean, I guess those Rays pitching coaches whipped him into shape, honey, because he is so much better now. Um, and I mean, good for him. I wish he would have been that good for the Orioles, but you know, sometimes you just need a change in environment to really excel and be your best self. But I'm already really excited for next year's All-Star Game. Next year it'll be hosted by the Cubs at Wrigley Field. So it'll be another National League home team advantage because, honey, they need it. If they want to try to win against the American League, okay. So next year we'll be at Wrigley Field, and that'll be the first time since 1990 that the All-Star Game has been played at Wrigley Field. And just for like reference, the last time the All-Star Game was at the Philly Stadium was in 2006. So it had been 30 years since the last time the Phillies were able to host the All-Star Game. And they were able to host it for America's 250th birthday, which they really celebrated a lot throughout the game. Okay, so that's all that I have for you guys today. I hope that you were able to watch the All-Star game, and if you weren't, you were able to get a little bit of a gist of what it was like. It was super fun to watch, especially if you love watching good pitching. The American League has really set the bar for how good pitching can get. I really think that Dylan Sees also set the tone for the rest of the entire game. I feel like starting pitchers always set the tone of the game. And when he came out and he dominated and he got three strikeouts, he was telling the rest of the pitchers, this is what you need to do, and this is the bar that I'm setting for this game. And boy oh boy, do those pitchers try to reach that bar. Okay, so thanks again for tuning in, and thank you for joining me in the softest corner of sports media. I hope to see you again next week for the weekly recap that I post on Mondays. I hope you have a good rest of your week and I'll see you guys later. Bye.