National League wins MLB All-Star Game in dramatic fashion and historic first

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The National League defeated the American League in Major League Baseball’s 95th All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday night, doing so in historic fashion. 

Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies won the exhibition game’s first-ever home run derby swing-off. The game was tied 6-6 after the end of nine innings. The AL and NL played a scoreless tenth inning before the game advanced to the swing-off to decide the winner for the first time in MLB history. The home run contest is a relatively new addition to the All-Star Game. It is the product of finalized negotiations in the 2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the MLB and the MLB Player’s Association union.

The NL jumped out to a 6-0 lead after six innings, with the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll each hitting a home run in the sixth inning to fuel the NL’s scoring. The AL immediately scored four runs in the next inning after the Athletics’ Brent Rooker hit a seventh-inning three-run home run. The AL scored two more runs in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.

The official final score of the game was 7-6, with the NL receiving one run for winning the swing-off.  

The game featured some of MLB’s biggest stars, with Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes on the National League’s squad, and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal. 

Skenes made All-Star Game history in only his second year in the big leagues by being the NL’s starting pitcher for the game.

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“According to Elias, Paul Skenes became the first pitcher and one of only five Major Leaguers ever to start the All-Star Game in each of his first two big league seasons,” read a release provided by MLB after the exhibition game. “With his start tonight, he joins Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio (first seven seasons, 1936-42); Rod Carew  (first three seasons, 1967-69); Frank Robinson (first two seasons, 1956-57); and 2025 Hall of Fame Inductee Ichiro Suzuki (first four seasons, 2001-04).”

Schwarber was named the game’s Most Valuable Player for hitting three home runs in the swing-off to give the victory to the NL. 

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