After a record breaking game, the American League did what it has done for the past 12 years and claimed victory over the National League in an epic 15-inning All-Star midsummer classic.
It took a big sacrifice fly from Michael Young to allow Justin Morneau to slide home just ahead of Corey Hart’s throw to end the 4-hour 50-minute grind. Playing in New York all through Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday, the AL finally managed to squeeze out a 4-3 victory at 1:37 AM after an unprecedented 15th inning.
As a result the American League MLB representative will once again clinch home field advantage in the World Series in October.
Bye Bye Babe’s House
With the Bronx Bombers moving to their new digs across the street next season, Yankee stadium played host to its fourth and final All-Star Game. Shortstop Derek Jetter commented "It seemed like the Stadium didn't want it to end.” Another AL Yankee representative, Alex Rodriguez, expressed that “It's my 12th year and by far it's the greatest show I've seen for an All-Star Game. New York knows how to do it best.”
“Let’s Play Two”
The famous motto of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, tasked with giving the pregame pep talk, almost came true. At the end of the night neither team had any extra pitchers left in the bullpen. Scott Kazmir of Tampa Bay, the final American League player on the roster, helped secure the win after throwing a scoreless inning at the top of the 15th. While he claimed he would have had it in him to pitch another round, his National League counterpart Brad Lidge conceded “I'm not sure how long I could have gone.” Clint Hurdle, the NL skipper, later revealed that he actually told the Mets’ third baseman David Wright that he might well be required to pitch.
Grinding it out
Though the ballgame started slowly with the pitchers dominating over four scoreless innings, it was the National League that drew first blood in the fifth. Colorado’s Matt Holliday hit a single run homerun off Angels pitcher Ervin Santana in his first at bat, making him the 15th All-Star player ever to do so.
The NL further increased their lead in the sixth thanks to Lance Berkman’s sacrifice fly that allowed Ramirez to score. However, the AL brought it back to all square in the seventh when Drew homered the pitch of Cincinnati rookie Edinson Volquez to right field while Morneau was on base.
Overtime
After each side scored a single run in the eighth, the game went into extra innings with the teams tied at 3-3. Although sixth scoreless extra innings were played, they were far from boring. In the tenth, Uggla made three consecutive mistakes that allowed the AL to load the bases with no outs. However, Colorado’s Aaron Cook managed to keep NL hopes alive by following up with a series of perfect pitches that saw three straight groundouts.
Two innings later it was the National League that managed to load the bases, but lefthander George Sherill struck out Adrian Gonzalez to end the innings and the best opportunity the NL had out of all the extra innings played.
Morneau with the last laugh
In the bottom of the fifteenth Justin Morneau began the winning inning with a leadoff single base hit. With one out, Dioner Navaraoo singled and JD Drew singled again to load the bases.
Texas Rangers shortstop Michel Young stepped up to the plate to loft a ball to right field just allowing Morneau to sneak home. After taking two bounces on the throw home, catcher Brian McCann attempted to tag Morneau but he managed to just get his right foot on the base before being tagged. After the plate umpire called it safe the AL bench flooded onto the pitch to celebrate. “I was just praying at that point” Young said. "I think if I had popped it up to second, he was still taking off for home.”
Sour taste for Yankee fans
Much to the annoyance of the Yankee faithful, the Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew was awarded the All-Star MVP award after his homerun in the seventh that evened the scores out at 2-2. He commented that it was "One of those indescribable events.”
A sellout crowd of 55,632 bore witness to a game well worth the $525 to $725 priced tickets, which set new records for the number of runners left on base (28), total strikeouts (34), and the amount of participating players (63). With forty-nine of baseball’s all-time greats looking on, many of who made their name in Yankee stadium, it was a fitting goodbye to the “House that Ruth Built” and a game that will surely go down in history as one of the best All-Star games ever.