NL wins All-Star Game decided by unprecedented Derby-like swing-off

ATLANTA – The fly ball off Jonathan Aranda’s bat stayed in the park, and the National Leaguers assembled in front of the home dugout jumped for joy.

No All-Star Game had ever ended like this. No MLB game had. It was the sort of ending ordinarily reserved for Wiffle ball wonderment or our most bonkers baseball dreams.

But here it was in real life at Truist Park on Tuesday night – a home run swing-off to settle a tie. And with Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber going deep with all three of his allotted swings to give the NL the lead and Tampa Bay's Aranda unable to answer in the AL’s last try, this one went to the Senior Circuit.

What will go down, technically, as a 7-6 win – just the second for the NL in the last 12 Midsummer Classics – the 95th All-Star Game was the first of its kind. It was 6-6 after nine innings, and then the NL outhomered the AL, 4-3, in what was arranged as a six-man swing-off.

Because of his perfect showing in the swing-off, Schwarber was named the Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP presented by Chevrolet.

“It was awesome,” Schwarber said of the experience. “The guys were really into it. They were yelling, screaming, cheering me on every swing. When that last one goes over, they were all pumped. It was a lot of fun.”

The tater-driven tiebreaker was installed as part of the current collective bargaining agreement but never needed until the AL stormed back from a 6-0 deficit and wound up tying the regulation tilt in the top of the ninth. AL manager Aaron Boone and NL skipper Dave Roberts each selected three players to receive three swings apiece, with the most total homers per side victorious.

This is how the swing-off played out:
NL (4 homers): Kyle Stowers (Marlins), 1; Schwarber (Phillies), 3; Pete Alonso (Mets), N/A*
AL (3 homers): Brent Rooker (A’s), 2; Randy Arozarena (Mariners), 1; Aranda (Rays), 0

• Alonso, who had opted not to vie for his third Home Run Derby crown in the event a night earlier but did raise his hand for the swing-off, did not need to bat, because the NL had prevailed prior to his turn.

“I got to say, you know, it was pretty exciting,” Boone said. “Like all of a sudden, here we go. And the camaraderie that you kind of build these last couple days with the team, I think went into overdrive there.”

The in-game recognition – on 7/15 – of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s famous 715th homer to pass Babe Ruth proved prescient. During an impressive projection of Aaron, pitcher Al Downing and the others on the field and a pyrotechnic blast reproducing the flight of one of the most famous home runs in MLB history, we once again heard the call of the late, great Vin Scully.

“That ball is gonna be… outta here!”

A lot of balls were out of here.

The three-run blast from Alonso that broke the game open for the NL in the sixth.

The solo shot from the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll later that inning that made it 6-0.

And the three-run shot from the A’s Rooker, who had been ousted from the Home Run Derby by an infinitesimal 0.8-inch tiebreaker, that brought the AL back to life in the seventh.

Because of its blasts, the NL had a 6-4 lead late. It was a lead preserved in the eighth by “The Miz” – Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski, who was appointed an All-Star replacement just five starts into his MLB career and did not disappoint in hitting 102.3 mph on the gun with his fastball and 98.1 with his slider in a scoreless outing.

But in the ninth, the AL Central, specifically, made its presence known, with the Twins’ Byron Buxton and the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. doubling in succession off the Padres’ Robert Suarez to get a run home and make it 6-5. Later, with two out and Mets closer Edwin Díaz on the hill, the Guardians’ Steven Kwan hit a squibbler to the third-base side and legged out an infield single that allowed Witt to streak home from third with the tying run.

Per Elias, it was the largest comeback in All-Star Game history to tie or take the lead, surpassing the previous record of five runs by the NL in the 1955 Midsummer Classic.

After Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, the swing-off was on.

The previous 13 All-Star Games tied after nine innings proceeded to extra innings. The swing-off was a new-fangled way of settling things efficiently.

“I don’t know what the viewing experience was like,” said Rooker, “but on the field, it was electric.”

The electricity was apparent. Rooker’s two quick blasts had the AL amped, and Arozarena’s dinger temporarily gave the league a 3-1 edge.

Then Schwarber swooped in and changed everything with three mammoth swings.

“I saw him nodding his head like, ‘I've got the speed on a couple of the takes,’” said Boone. “And he did Schwarber-type things.”

The swing-off was a fitting addition to a game that amply mixed innovation with tradition.

On the innovation front, this was the first All-Star Game to feature the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system, which resulted in three erroneous calls getting overturned in short order. The ABS challenge could be coming to an MLB park near you as soon as 2026.

And this was the most mic’d up Midsummer Classic of all, a fun opportunity to hear the thoughts of position players and even pitchers as the action occurs.

On the tradition front, this game returned us to the custom of players wearing their regular-season uniforms. We also saw Dodgers star Freddie Freeman return to his Atlanta roots, Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre make an eighth-inning pitching change at the behest of Boone, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who was handpicked by Commissioner Rob Manfred for his 11th All-Star selection as a “Legend Pick,” show off that killer curve that drops down like an elevator with a snapped cable.

The game began with an old-school battle of aces. The scheduled Skenes-Skubal skirmish went to the Pirates’ Paul Skenes, who, in his second All-Star start (in only his second season), pitched a 1-2-3 first, prior to the Tigers’ reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal getting touched by a two-run double from the D-backs’ Ketel Marte.

Though that Marte double got the NL on the board early and a four-run sixth had the Senior Circuit in a commanding position, this All-Star Game became awfully interesting in the late innings and in an “extra” special ending that had both sides swinging for the fences, Henry Aaron-style.

No doubt, Hammerin’ Hank would approve of the NL winning the slugfest.

“We finally beat these guys,” Roberts said. “They seemed to have our number over the last decade. … But tonight, we got the best of them.”