The MLB All-Star game is one of the highlights of the league calendar as we see the league’s best battle it out. This year the MLB Vegas Odds were tight, but we saw a slight upset as the American League managed to grind out a narrow victory.
Shane McLanahan took the mound for the American League, who has historically dominated the National League in this annual game. A dominant first half of the season for Shane didn’t seem to translate over to the All-Star game.
Each pitcher gets one inning to make room for all the other guys that earned their spot. A Mookie Bett’s RBI single and a Paul Goldschmidt moonshot was all she wrote for McLanahan. His first taste of the All-Star life was a bitter one at the least.
The A.L. got back on track when Giancarlo Stanton hit one of his classic no-doubters. As a matter of fact, Stanton’s two-run home run was the hardest hit ball in All-Star Game history. Immediately following Stanton, Byron Buxton hit his own homer. All of the sudden, the American League was up 3-2. The game seemed to be set in stone after that inning.
No real threats emerged throughout the game and pitching seemed to take over. Emmanuel Clase closed it out for the AL, recording back-to-back strikeouts in the bottom half of the 9th. With 13 hits for both teams combined, it was a pitcher’s duel for the 2022 edition of the MLB All-Star Game. Many fans hoped for pimp-jobs, bat flips, and home runs but instead, they got a whole lot of K’s.
Framber Valdez earned the win for the A.L, pitching a scoreless and hitless 3rd inning. On the other side, Tony Gonsolin took home the loss after giving up the Stanton and Buxton homers. After another exciting ASG, regular season play will resume partially on July 21st.
The majority of teams get things going again on the 22nd. This is now the 9th ASG in a row that the American League has brought home. An impressive streak that is accompanied by a 15+ year streak in the early 2000s, broken in the early 2010s. The American League dominance will hold true for another year.
