On the backs of their excellent pitching staff, the American League All-Star team shut out the National League All-Star team, 3-0. With the win, the AL snapped three years of National League victories and earned home-field advantage for its representative in the World Series.
MLB All-Star Game 2013 results: American League cruises to 3-0 win
The American League team controlled this one for nearly the entire game.
Mike Ehrmann
As far as All-Star games go, this one really wasn't one of the more exciting ones. The most memorable moments of the game were when Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game, when a fan ran on the field because Twitter prompted him to, and Mariano Rivera's final All-Star Game appearance.
The American League started off the scoring in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista, which came after a double from Miguel Cabrera and a single that advanced him to third. The AL tacked on an extra run in the fifth when J.J. Hardy hit into a force out that scored Adam Jones. In the eighth inning, Jason Kipnis doubled in Salvador Perez to add a third run to the American League's lead.
The National League hitters were kept off balance for most of the night by the American League pitching staff, which was started off by Tigers starter Max Scherzer. Mariano Rivera pitched the eighth instead of the ninth, out of fear from AL manager Jim Leyland that the game might not have a bottom of the ninth. Rivera sat the NL hitters down 1-2-3, and did so with the players from both sides snapping photos of the moment.
Despite the game not being particularly memorable in terms of its moments, baseball’s best did manage to flash some leather in this one.
Brandon Phillips flashed his lack of leather when he turned a double play on Mike Trout by barehanding the throw from shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
And then Manny Machado just had to go and do this...
As far as All-Star Games go, this one didn’t have the in-game moments that our grandchildren will be asking about, but it had some nice moments, like Neil Diamond singing “Sweet Caroline” between the top and bottom half of the eighth inning, and the goose-bump-inducing Mariano Rivera entrance:
But also, this game being over means we are two days away from getting back to the regular season and the pennant chase. As fun as the All-Star Game is, it still doesn’t beat the second-half, the trade deadline and the playoffs.
But really, the biggest thing we should take away from Tuesday’s All-Star Game is this:
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