Historic All-Star Game ends with first Swing-Off as labour storm looms

ATLANTA — Baseball really does moments of tribute and celebration at all-star games right.

Giving honorary selection Clayton Kershaw two batters and pulling him after an 86.9 m.p.h. slider caught Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking, all while the newest 3,000-strikeout club member was on a live mic, so a Truist Park crowd of 41,702 could serenade him in his final Midsummer Classic, was pure class.

Similarly, subbing out his Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman, the longtime Atlanta Braves icon, with two outs in the third inning for another ovation from his former fans, was also a masterstroke. And commemorating the late Hank Aaron’s 715^th home run with a video simulation projected onto the field and fireworks was a chef’s kiss. 

“Those moments bring me back to when my dad would come to all-star games and they did (things like) that for my dad, for David Ortiz, for a lot of guys,” said Guerrero, who also laced a single off David Peterson during his four innings of work Tuesday night in the American League’s loss to the National League settled in the first ever Home Run Swing-Off. “I just sometimes think like, oh, maybe my last year, they’ll do that for me, too. So it’s special to be that type of player with the fans cheering for him. That means a lot.”

Then came a wild ending that will make the 95^th edition of the Midsummer Classic even more enduring, as the AL’s rally from a 6-0 hole led to the unexpected drama of a derby tiebreaker Tuesday.

The Swing-Off gave three players from each team three swings apiece, with Kyle Schwarber’s 3-for-3 turn in the middle round giving the NL a 4-3 lead that the final AL batter, Jonathan Aranda, couldn’t overcome. Brent Rooker hit two homers and Randy Arozarena one for the AL, while Kyle Stowers hit one and Pete Alonso’s turn wasn’t needed, with the NL side mobbing Schwarber on the field once it was settled.

“Very dynamic, different,” said Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, whose single in the seventh started the AL rally, “and obviously very fun.”

AL manager Aaron Boone had prepared for such a scenario in advance, deciding which players would take part after gauging interest. Kirk was not among the volunteers.

“No,” he said, smiling, through interpreter Hector Lebron. “That’s something that I don’t feel is for me.”

More for him was another new element in the game, the grandest stage on which the ABS Challenge System for balls and strikes was used, with fellow catcher Cal Raleigh being the first to tap his helmet, testing an 0-2 ball call to Manny Machado in the first inning that was overturned for strike three.

In the fifth inning, the AL’s Jacob Wilson challenged a 1-0 strike call that was also overturned for a 2-0 count before he grounded out to short. Stowers challenged a borderline called third strike that ended the eighth, with the pitch being confirmed. Finally in the ninth, Edwin Diaz challenged an 0-2 ball call that was overturned for a strike three on Arozarena to end the top of inning, while in the bottom half, Kirk challenged an 0-1 ball call that was overturned on Brendan Donovan.

“I was kind of looking for it,” said Kirk. “Earlier in the game I had an opportunity, it was kind of close, but I didn’t want to waste it. Later in the game, I wanted to challenge.”

Coming after ABS was used during spring training games, it’s the latest sign the system will be implemented next season, even as players union leader Tony Clark said during a meeting with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America that several issues are still in need of being ironed out.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, subsequently addressing the same gathering, brushed off concerns that the system has a half-inch margin for error by saying that “the ability to correct a bad call in a high-leverage situation, without interfering with the time of game because it’s so fast, is something we ought to continue to pursue.”

That, of course, is far from the only flash point between players and owners as the sides continued carving out their positions for the labour storm clouds looming on the horizon. 

During a recent investor event hosted by the Braves, Manfred detailed how he’s tried to create an openness from players to consider a change to the economic system, an approach the union interpreted as owners laying the groundwork to resume pursuit of a salary cap when the current labour agreement expires after the 2026 season.

Manfred insisted he’s not trying to sell players on a salary cap, but rather present an issue the sides need to work together on, as “there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive-balance problem.”

“And I’ve never used the word salary within one of cap,” he continued. “What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that’s real, we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective. … Everybody going to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that’s fan-driven, leads to a better collective bargaining process and a better outcome.”

Sounds innocuous enough, in theory, but Manfred’s approach can also be seen as trying to exploit fissures in the player population by pointing out the growing divide between haves and have-nots.

Clark dismissed the owners’ positioning, saying “let’s be very clear, a cap is not about a partnership, a cap is not about growing the game, that’s not what a cap is about. As has been offered publicly, a cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about. … A salary cap, historically, has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another, and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence, it undermines it, from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about a fair versus not. This is institutionalized collusion. That’s what a salary cap is.”

Long story short, then, dark times very much seem to be ahead, which seems counterproductive given the sport’s overall health and the remarkable wave of talent currently in the game.

Paul Skenes tore through the AL in a three-up, three-down, two-strikeout first while the equally electric Tarik Skubal got bled on singles by Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna Jr. before Ketel Marte ripped a two-run double that opened the scoring.

Pitching ruled until the sixth, when Kris Bubic gave up a three-run homer to Pete Alonso and Corbin Carroll added a solo shot off Casey Mize to put the NL up 6-0.

The American League responded in the seventh with Kirk’s single off Adrian Morejon, followed by a walk from his childhood friend and teammate Aranda. Rooker then clubbed a three-run shot off Randy Rodriguez, who also surrendered an RBI groundout to Bobby Witt Jr. later in the inning.

Back-to-back doubles by Byron Buxton and Witt made it a one-run game in the ninth and knocked out Robert Suarez, but Diaz gave up the tying run on an infield single by Steven Kwan, setting up the derby tiebreaker. 

Like Boone, NL manager Dave Roberts ran through scenarios with his players Monday, “pretty much just asked, if there’s a tie, would you do it? I said, ‘Absolutely,’ not thinking that we were going to end up in a tie when you say yes,” said Schwarber, who earned game MVP honours. “The first swing was kind of the big one. I was just really trying to, say, hit a line drive versus trying to hit the home run. Usually, that tends to work out, especially in games.”

Phenom righty Jacob Misiorowski, whose selection after just five big-league outings raised the ire of some players, worked a shutout eighth for the NL, including a Kirk flyout to right on an 88.7 m.p.h. curveball after the catcher fouled off two fastballs at 102 m.p.h.

It was the opposite of what Guerrero saw from Kershaw, who started off the encounter with an 89 m.p.h fastball that he said on the live mic was “right down the middle. I’m so glad he didn’t swing.” 

The one pitch Guerrero did swing at was a 1-1 curveball at 71.6 m.p.h., which he whiffed through. It reminded the Blue Jays slugger of the first time he faced Kershaw during his rookie season in 2019, when he worked the Future Hall of Famer for two walks and a single in three plate appearances.

“I remember he threw me that same exact curveball and I missed it, but I was just having fun facing him and I feel so happy for him,” said Guerrero, who added later: “One of the things that I can say is his last strikeout in (an) all-star game was against me.”