![\"Phillies](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26196063527501.jpg\")
Phillies pitcher Jes\u00fas Luzardo reacts after completing the fourth inning of MLB All-Star Game Tuesday in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum)<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2013 When Travis Bazzana faced Cristopher Sanchez in May, the Phillies\u2019 lefty was in the midst of being unhittable.<\/p>\n
Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, had been in the major leagues for about three weeks. Sanchez was in the middle of 50.2 shutout innings, the third-longest streak of zeroes in the live-ball era.<\/p>\n
So forgive the Guardians\u2019 second baseman if he doesn\u2019t recall too fondly the two strikeouts in three at-bats against Sanchez that night at Citizens Bank Park \u2013 then another K courtesy of fellow All-Star Jhoan Duran in the ninth of what did become a 1-0 Cleveland win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best pitcher I\u2019ve faced so far, in my opinion, in the major leagues,\u201d Bazzana said. \u201cIn my life, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s high praise, if in a limited sample size, though the native of Hornsby, Australia, also played in this spring\u2019s World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
Bazzana and Sanchez share an aspect to their origin stories. Bazzana\u2019s rookie season in the Australian Baseball League was 2018-19. Sanchez spent that winter playing Down Under in Perth.<\/p>\n
Their paths didn\u2019t cross. Bazzana was 15, playing in three games with two plate appearances \u2013 \u201cbasically just a young guy training with the team, and I\u2019d get a quick at-bat late in the game some days in a blowout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanchez turned 22 in Western Australia, posting a 1.76 ERA over 15.1 innings over eight appearances, after a 2018 season in which he was limited to 12 games in the Rays system. He came into 2019 and breezed through Class A and High A, before being swapped that November for \u2013 fittingly enough \u2013 another Aussie in Curtis Mead.<\/p>\n
The rest is history, Sanchez a two-time All-Star. Even if his second appearance didn\u2019t go to plan, allowing three runs in the first inning of a 4-0 National League loss Tuesday, there\u2019s a measure of pride that Australia takes in Sanchez\u2019s developmental arc. And some of it is reflected in that league fostering talents like Bazzana, who went onto Oregon State and a promising start to his career in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Australian Baseball League and Baseball Australia takes pride in being able to bring over some quality prospects and add some caliber to the league,\u201d Bazzana said. \u201cIf they can help have a good player have a good winter and build them to then go on to be players in the major leagues, it\u2019s not ownership, but just it\u2019s a positive thing for the game back home, and hopefully for the player as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Sanchez didn\u2019t have the outing he wanted on the All-Star stage, allowing three hits (all to lefties) and three earned runs in the first, requiring 34 pitches to get out of it. He had allowed just 17 hits to lefties in 20 starts this year.<\/p>\n
Phillies pitcher Jes\u00fas Luzardo reacts after completing the fourth inning of MLB All-Star Game Tuesday in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum)<\/p>\n
But Jesus Luzardo did. The other Phillies lefty tossed a 1-2-3 top of the fourth. He struck out Riley Greene, then induced a pair of first-pitch groundouts from Ernie Clement and Mike Trout for a six-pitch outing.<\/p>\n
Luzardo, in his first All-Star game, felt no desire to go back out for more, satisfied with the brevity of his day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy about the quick inning,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll take that, and it was a great experience. It went by very fast, but at the same time, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In general, he enjoyed his first All-Star experience. He got to catch up with fellow southpaw Chris Sale and spent some time talking shop with the Dodgers\u2019 Justin Wrobleski.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great time,\u201d Luzardo said. \u201cObviously, a lot to take in. It was a long two days. We did a lot of different things, but it was so fun and just spending time with the guys in that clubhouse, it did live up to everything I thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bumper crop of stellar young shortstops blossoming into the bigs. Delco native Kevin McGonigle is one, and while Bazzana has played at second, he\u2019s certainly in a conversation oddly centered on the American League East.<\/p>\n
In the National League, Washington\u2019s CJ Abrams made his second All-Star Game appearance, and Pirates phenom Konnor Griffin is not far behind.<\/p>\n
That makes Bobby Witt Jr., in his third All-Star Game and at the tender age of 26, the veteran? At the very least, he was the established superstar among the bunch, and one who\u2019s eager to share lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome just to see them come up here, and the guys that I\u2019ve talked to with Kevin and Travis and the younger guys,\u201d Witt said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see the work they put in. They know how much work they have to put in to get here, and so just talking to them about that, it\u2019s like they already know what they need. There\u2019s a lot of work to feel like a big league shortstop, and so you\u2019ve just got to prepare the way you prepare starts in the offseason, then go from that to in season.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGonigle made a point to seek out Trout as one of the veterans he grew up idolizing. Learning from Witt is part of it, too.<\/p>\n
When Witt was younger \u2013 meaning a couple of years ago, for the proper perspective \u2013 he leaned on guys like Carlos Correa, Aaron Judge and Jose Ramirez. He\u2019s becoming that player for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great, talking defense, talking hitting, talking whatever,\u201d Witt said. \u201cWe\u2019re always talking baseball in here. That\u2019s what makes this game so special with All-Star Games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
In one of the scary moments of the game, Rays third baseman Junior Caminero was hit on the hand with a 97.6 mile per hour sinker by Cardinals pitcher Riley O\u2019Brien in the top of the third.<\/p>\n
Caminero exited immediately, pinch-run for by Miguel Vargas. X-rays taken at the park were negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the moment I was just scared,\u201d Caminero said via a translator. \u201cIn that situation, you know you\u2019re thinking the worst and I honestly thought something might have been broken. But thank you to God that everything\u2019s fine, and now it\u2019s just a little bit sore, but we\u2019re all good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The localness of the All-Star Game went beyond Trout and McGonigle to umpire Alan Porter, who worked the plate as the crew chief of the game.<\/p>\n
Porter, a Hatboro-Horsham grad, was promoted to the big leagues in 2010 and became a crew chief in 2023. He worked the 2015 All-Star Game in right field. He\u2019s crewed three League Championships Series and two Worlds Series, including the 2022 Series in Philly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 When Travis Bazzana faced Cristopher Sanchez in May, the Phillies\u2019 lefty was in the midst of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4,25,185,4802],"class_list":["post-752255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116922955037195787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752255","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=752255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}