By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dylan Cease struck out the side in the first inning, combining with 10 relievers on a three-hitter in a show of pitching dominance that led the American League to a 4-0 victory over the National League in Tuesday night\u2019s All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
All-Star MVP Cody Bellinger hit a two-run single and Ben Rice followed with an RBI single in the first against Cristopher S\u00e1nchez of the host Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n
Miguel Vargas of the Chicago White Sox added an eighth-inning home run off the the Dodgers\u2019 Justin Wrobleski, his former minor-league teammate, who was pitching on his 26th birthday, for the game\u2019s only extra-base hit. The AL won for the 18th time in 23 games and holds a 49-45-2 advantage overall.<\/p>\n
Singles by Juan Soto in the fourth, Pete Crow-Armstrong in the eighth and Otto Lopez in the ninth were the only hits by the NL, which failed to advance a runner past first.<\/p>\n
Pitchers combined for 27 strikeouts, 15 by AL hurlers.<\/p>\n
Cease struck out Kyle Schwarber, Soto and CJ Abrams around a walk in the first inning. He became just the seventh pitcher to strike out three in an All-Star opening inning after Carl Hubbell (1934), Warren Spahn (1949), Jim Palmer (1977), Dave Stieb (1983), Pedro Martinez (1999) and Brad Penny (2006) \u2013 four of them Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
Parker Messick, Michael Wacha, Joe Ryan, Nick Martinez, Cade Smith, Drew Rasmussen, Jacob Latz, Louis Varland, Aroldis Chapman and Bryan Baker finished the first All-Star shutout since the AL\u2019s 2-0 win in 2013 at New York\u2019s Citi Field.<\/p>\n
Some starting star power was missing, with Jacob Misoriowski, Paul Skenes and Shohei Ohtani all unavailable. Just six pitches reached 100 mph, the fewest in an All-Star Game since 2021.<\/p>\n
Bellinger and Rice both singled on sinkers from S\u00e1nchez, who struggled through a 34-pitch inning that included three hits and two walks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just took me a little time to soak it all in and enjoy it,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said through a translator.<\/p>\n
Angels outfielder Mike Trout, a 12-time All-Star who hadn\u2019t played in the game since 2019 because of injuries, went 0 for 3 with a strikeout.<\/p>\n
RAYS\u2019 CAMINERO AVOIDS BROKEN HAND<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero feared the worst when a 97.6 mph sinker that didn\u2019t sink struck him in the left hand in the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
For the Tampa Bay Rays slugging third baseman, Caminero considered himself fortunate the hit-by-pitch was more a scare than a season-ender.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are thinking the worst and honestly thought something may have been broken,\u201d Caminero said through a translator. \u201cBut thank you to God, it\u2019s fine and just a little bit sore. But we\u2019re all good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caminero was struck on the outside of his left hand by St. Louis Cardinals closer Riley O\u2019Brien with the high hard one in the top of the third inning with the American League leading 3-0 on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Caminero, fourth in the major leagues with 28 home runs, stayed down for a few moments before he popped up and ran straight into the clubhouse.<\/p>\n
X-rays were negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinker on hands that didn\u2019t hit my bat at all,\u201d Caminero said. \u201cSo look, it was a scary moment. But you know right now, we feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays resume their season Friday with a doubleheader in Boston.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, who has 24 saves this season for the Cardinals, checked in with Caminero in the AL clubhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Ryan I really appreciate the gesture,\u201d Caminero said. \u201cHe came into the clubhouse, and he took a few seconds to apologize, but I told him it was part of the game. He was really worried, but I told him look, these things happen. We are here to have fun, and we are here to enjoy the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caminero, who was replaced by Vargas, hit 17 total home runs a night earlier at Citizens Bank Park in the Home Run Derby. He hit 45 home runs with 110 RBIs last season, and this season has led the Rays to the top of the AL East.<\/p>\n
DOCUMENTING THE DAY<\/p>\n
Managers and starters entered through replica Liberty Bells in front of each dugout, walked to home plate and used a feathered quill to sign an oversized lineup card, as if they were Founding Fathers affixing names to the Declaration of Independence. The dirt was surrounded by 13 stars, one for each of the Colonies.<\/p>\n
Fireworks were set off after the fourth inning to a video of Ray Charles singing \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d at Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia was awarded this year\u2019s All-Star Game in 2019 \u2013 an unusually long lead time to coincide with the U.S. 250th semiquincentennial. The Phillies hosted the 1976 and \u201996 games at Veterans Stadium and the Athletics in 1943 and \u201952 at Shibe Park.<\/p>\n
At the 1996 game, there was a hard hit even before the first pitch. Cal Ripken Jr.\u2019s nose was broken when struck by a forearm of Chicago White Sox reliever Roberto Hernandez when he lost his balance on a platform during the AL team picture.<\/p>\n
Next year\u2019s game is scheduled for the Chicago Cubs\u2019 Wrigley Field for the first time since 1990 but is threatened by possible labor strife.<\/p>\n
Much more to come on this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dylan Cease struck out the side in the first inning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,1365,56,57,4,13669,18,185,282,70,2553],"class_list":["post-752108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-all-star-game","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116922022882664086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}