ATLANTA — Technically, by the time the clock hit midnight here in Cobb County and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber hit the last of his three batting practice homers in a decisive swing-off, the National League All-Stars were 7-6 winners of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday night.
But by all qualitative measures, the true winner of the 95th such game in MLB history was the sport itself, which saw a half-decade of pulling itself into the 21st century yield the most entertaining Midsummer Classic of this generation.
Everywhere from the Fox broadcast, which bucked tradition and mic’d up pitchers as they were pitching, to behind home plate, where the automated balls and strikes challenge system MLB hopes will be in place next year was implemented, the sport’s recent willingness to try new things yielded vast improvements to an event that often ceded entertainment value to the old ways.
All four Mariners got into the game. Cal Raleigh started at catcher, hitting the ball hard twice and finishing 1-for-2. Randy Arozerena subbed in for Yankees star Aaron Judge in right field and went 0-for-3. Brian Woo threw eight pitches during a perfect third inning. Mariners closer Andres Munoz pitched the final two outs of the eighth inning.
The pitch clock, now old hat but once considered the latest threat to a tradition-heavy sport, kept a late-starting game moving even as players shuffled in and out and the American League climbed its way back from a six-run deficit.
And most memorably, when the game ended in a tie — a situation that once forced then-commissioner Bud Selig into an unnecessarily uncomfortable position more than two decades ago — it triggered a rule so new that players in both dugouts found their jaws dropping when they learned it was real: A three-batter, three-swing, Home Run Derby-style swing-off agreed upon to avoid taxing too many players in extra innings while still determining the outcome: Nine swings per team, batting practice pitchers, most homers wins.
“I think (the All-Star Game) is a unique way for the league to kind of try different things,” said Schwarber, who won MVP honors after hitting three home runs, including the decisive one, in his three overtime swings. “Obviously, you heard [MLB Commissioner Rob] Manfred say ABS will be coming into the league at some point. To have it kind of out there for the fans to see what it will look like in a real situational game that things are on the line, I think it was just a way for them to see that.”
The swing-off – made necessary by a stunning AL comeback capped by Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan chopping a 60-foot game-tying single back toward grinning New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz in the ninth inning — was agreed upon by players and owners in the last round of collective bargaining.
Managers Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts set their trios in advance based on which players they assumed would a) stick around and b) have been warm recently enough to not risk injury by heating back up for a few swings on a big stage hours after they first played.
Most players did not even know the rule was in place. Those who did, even those who agreed to participate, never expected it to come into play. But when it did, no one seemed to care that megastars such as Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge had long since left the game and the city to start their truncated all-star breaks.
“I got to say, it was pretty exciting,” Boone said. “Like all of a sudden, here we go. And the camaraderie that you kind of build these last couple days with the team I think went into overdrive there. Like guys were — I mean, our side, to see how excited they were out there — it’s like Wiffle ball in the backyard. Here we go. Let’s do it.”
Boone, like Schwarber, later wondered aloud whether MLB would eventually consider implementing the swing-off to end regular season games. While the idea has its merits — namely, limiting the number of pitchers teams would have to use and the number of extra-inning games that send pitching staffs reeling for weeks at a time — no one has suggested such a change is imminent.
“Oh, no,” Roberts said, when asked about the possibility. “I think that it was great for this exhibition, but in the regular season, I don’t mind how it plays out in the regular season with the [automatic] man on second base. But this was the first time in history we got to do this, and I think it played pretty well tonight.”
The change that is imminent is the implementation of the automated balls and strikes challenge system that was also on display Tuesday night. MLB tested that system in spring training and will propose 2026 implementation to its rules committee, a group that includes both MLB representatives and players but more of the former, meaning the committee is likely to approve the change.
Tuesday, the first challenge came when Detroit Tigers starter Tarik Skubal thought he struck out San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado in the first inning, only to watch home plate umpire Dan Iassogna call the pitch a ball. Skubal, who was wearing a Fox microphone at the time, wondered aloud whether he should challenge. Raleigh, also mic’d up, tapped his head to signal for one.
When the pitch was shown on the big screen, it was indeed strike three. Machado, whose history with rule changes includes being the first player ejected for arguing a pitch clock violation, was sent back to the dugout.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even going to use them, but I felt like that was a strike,” Skubal said later. “Then you want that on an 0-2 count, especially with the way the inning was going, the ball kind of finding a lot of grass. So, yeah, I think [ABS] is coming. Whether players like it or not, it’s going to come. Might as well get used to it.”
Ultimately, Skubal and his AL teammates challenged three calls, all of which resulted in pitches being overturned. National Leaguers challenged two, one of which was upheld.
“I thought it was great,” Roberts said. “The fans enjoy it. I thought the players had fun with it. And there’s a strategy to it, if it does get to us during the season. But I like it. I think it’s good for the game.”
That Skubal was wearing a microphone at the time of his challenge was also a departure, because even in games that do not matter, pitchers — particularly starting pitchers — had normally been off limits for such distractions. But the decision to chat with players throughout this game resulted in several memorable moments, most notably attention-averse future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw telling millions of viewers he was about to throw “cheese” to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., then breathlessly admitting his relief when the Toronto Blue Jays slugger didn’t swing when he left that cheese over the middle of the plate.
“It’s just weird having to kind of talk through it,” Kershaw said. “But it was fun. I enjoyed it.”
From hearing Skubal navigate balls and strikes to watching Kershaw thank his infield after being pulled from the game, the conversations with players that can sometimes feel out of place in regular season games added to the entertainment value Tuesday. And the ABS system, which did not slow the game in any visible way, did not detract from it.
Even recent changes to the Home Run Derby format, like abandoning a bracket system or changing the amount of time allotted to each hitter, have shown MLB’s willingness to treat its all-star festivities as a chance to try new things after years of worrying that they would lose fans if they did.
“It’s fundamentally an entertainment product,” Manfred said Tuesday before the game. “We shouldn’t get caught up in we used to do it this way or used to do it that way. It should just be fluid.”
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