AL beats NL in 2024 MLB All-Star Game

ARLINGTON — The blend was beautiful. Power pitching that overwhelmed the opposition, and power hitting that answered back. Established superstars shining on summer’s biggest stage, and emerging superstars making their presence known in front of an ample audience.

Whether it was magnetic Pirates rookie Paul Skenes getting massive Yankees slugger Aaron Judge to roll over on a 100 mph fastball, Dodgers international sensation Shohei Ohtani launching a 400-foot homer or the Phillies’ Trea Turner and Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. making difficult defensive plays at shortstop, some of the sport’s greatest skillsets were on display Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.

But the biggest moment of all turned out to be the tiebreaking, two-run homer off the booming bat of Boston’s breakout center fielder Jarren Duran in the American League’s 5-3 win over the National Leaguers.

“That,” Duran said afterward, “is the first home run I’ve ever pimped in my life.”

The Junior Circuit held serve at the home park of the Rangers -– the first defending World Series champion to host the All-Star Game since the 1939 Yankees. And Globe Life Field, a 4-year-old building that has somehow already housed two World Series, two no-hitters and a record-breaking home run off the bat of Judge in 2022, was easily up to the task of accommodating the All-Stars and a loud and rocking crowd of 39,343.

The game was completed in two hours, 28 minutes, making it the shortest All-Star Game since 1988 (2:26).

A distinctly Texas-themed pregame featured soon-to-be-Hall-of-Famer Adrian Beltré arriving on a stagecoach and throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Pudge Rodriguez while flanked by Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins. Then, AL starter Corbin Burnes of the Orioles pitched a scoreless first inning against the National Leaguers — possibly an easier assignment than tending to the newborn twins he and his wife just welcomed into the world.

But the more anticipated pitches came in the bottom of the first, when Skenes brought his electric right arm to the Midsummer Classic mound just a little over a year after leading Louisiana State University to the national championship at the College World Series.

“Obviously, I’ve done a lot over the last 13 months,” Skenes said. “I think LSU as a whole does a good job of preparing us for big moments. … There’s not a whole lot else you can do to prepare for moments like this other than to pitch in moments like this. That was big.”

This was the big moment All-Star Week had been building toward, because there has never been an All-Star story like Skenes’. He is the first player ever to be taken No. 1 overall and reach the All-Star Game the very next year, and NL manager Torey Lovullo upped the significance of that selection by making Skenes just the fifth rookie pitcher to start a Midsummer Classic.

The 22-year-old Skenes, with his fiery fastball and famous splinker among his offerings, met the moment by making short work of the Guardians’ Steven Kwan and the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson. But he was kind enough to unintentionally walk Juan Soto to set up the Skenes-Judge matchup everyone wanted.

It turned out to be a brief one, as the power pitcher held the power hitter to a harmless ground ball on the very first pitch to end his awesome outing.

“You’ve got to be [aggressive] with a guy like that, a guy who can throw 100-plus and has feel for all his pitches,” Judge said. “Juan said he would get on for me, and he did, and then it was my job to try to barrel something up.”

Judge didn’t go deep, but the sport’s other signature slugger sure did.

In the top of the third inning, a mic’d-up Judge talked on the FOX broadcast about how incredible it is to see Ohtani post MVP offensive numbers while still recovering from Tommy John. And right on cue, Ohtani pulverized a Tanner Houck splitter and sent it into the seats beyond the wall in right-center, making Ohtani the first AL/NL player ever to earn a win on the mound (in Colorado in 2021) and hit a homer in his All-Star Game career.

His three-run blast put the NL ahead, 3-0.

“In general, I haven’t really hit well during the All-Star Game,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “So I’m just relieved that I put a good ball in play.”

Not to be outdone, the American Leaguers staged a rally in the bottom of the inning against the Giants’ Logan Webb. Soto aggressively took the extra bag on a ground ball that became a two-run double.

Then, Guardians utilityman David Fry — pinch-hitting for Yordan Alvarez (a scenario that would have been impossible to imagine a few months ago, before Fry’s unexpected All-Star first half) — drove Soto home with the game-tying single.

“Actually, it’s probably easier for me to come off the bench there, because all these other guys play every day,” Fry said with a smile. “To get a hit here was extremely fun.”

Thanks to the A’s electric closer Mason Miller — who dominated even more than Skenes had with a perfect top of the fifth, threw a 103.6 mph fastball (fastest ever in an All-Star Game since Statcast began tracking) and wound up becoming just the third rookie to notch a win in this game (joining Spec Shea in 1947 and Dean Stone in 1954, both for the AL) — it remained 3-3 when the AL came to bat in the bottom of the inning.

Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander ripped a two-out single off the Reds’ Hunter Greene, bringing Duran to the plate. The 27-year-old Duran, who entered the break with 47 extra-base hits for the Red Sox, took a called strike for the first pitch but swung hard at an 86 mph splitter for the second.

The ball hurtled into the right-center-field seats to give Duran his All-Star moment and the AL a 5-3 lead that the Royals’ Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo, the Rangers’ Kirby Yates and Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase would not relinquish.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words,” said Duran, “but honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking [about] my family and being able to go see them after the game. But I’m just thankful that I was able to do that and help the AL team win.”