AL Pitching Shines Again in Midsummer Classic Shutout Win

PHILADELPHIA — The American League won Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, which automatically makes it worthy of being stuck in a time capsule so that future generations know what the Midsummer Classic was like a quarter of the way through the 21st century.

The AL’s 4-0 victory improved the Junior Circuit to 23-5-1 in the All-Star Game since 1997. It is 32-10-1 since 1983, when Fred Lynn hit the first (and for at least one more year, only) grand slam in game history to fuel a 13-3 win that snapped the National League’s 23-2-1 streak dating back to 1960.

“Anytime you come in, you want to win,” Detroit Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler said.

Cody Bellinger had a chance to join Lynn in the history books when he walked to the plate with the bases loaded in the first. His two-run single was enough to give the AL the lead for good (obviously) and lock up MVP honors in yet another low-scoring All-Star Game.

“We took advantage early of some guys getting on base, put some pressure and put the ball I play,” Rays pitcher Nick Martinez said. “Little bit of Rays baseball there.”

And while the Rays have the best record in the AL despite ranking 16th in the majors with 425 runs and 26th with 94 round-trippers, you can’t get much more Rays baseball than piecing together a low-hit game.

AL catchers Dillon Dingler and Adley Rutschman said they both noticed a zero underneath the NL’s hit column until the fourth, when Juan Soto singled for the first of just three hits for the National League.

The AL was working on a combined one-hitter until Pete Crow-Armstrong singled in the eighth. And only a two-out ninth-inning single by Otto Lopez prevented the National League from matching the fewest hits in an All-Star Game. The NL was also two-hit in 1990.

“Having arm after arm after arm after arm, that just makes it so much easier on us,” Dingler said.

Eleven AL pitchers recorded 15 strikeouts, tied with the 2015 NL squad for the second-most all-time in a nine-inning All-Star Game. Thirteen of the NL’s 21 batters Tuesday struck out at least once, including three-time batting champ Luis Arraez, who is hitting .330 this year and has 23 more regular season walks than strikeouts over his eight-year career.

The NL did a pretty good job too Tuesday, when it limited the AL to one run on four hits — including Miguel Vargas’ seventh-inning homer — over the final eight innings.

Ten of the 20 AL batters whiffed at least once, including former batting champ Yandy Diaz, who leads the league with a .322 average.

The teams combined for five runs or fewer for the third time in the last five years and the fifth time in 13 All-Star games since 2013 — a good summation of an era in which every team’s bullpen is churning out guys throwing A-plus stuff. There were five runs or fewer scored in an All-Star Game just five times from 1997 through 2012.

“That’s the game now — you know guys’ stuff is unbelievable,” AL manager John Schneider said. “To see Luis Arraez strike out and Yandy Diaz strike out a couple times is kind of like — you never see it.

“I think the bullpen guys kind of fed off of it. They were all excited coming off the mound. It speaks volumes to how good the pitching is.”

And for one more year, at least, the result spoke of how good the AL is in the All-Star Game.

“Always feels good to win, no matter what it is,” Rutschman said.