ATLANTA -- The 95th All-Star Game will objectively go down as one of the most epic and memorable, one that began with the sport’s most promising pitcher of the future dialing up the fastest strikeouts for a starter in Midsummer Classic history. It featured a comfortable National League lead midway through thanks to huge homers from Pete Alonso and Corbin Carroll, a late rally from the American League that tied things up at the finish line and then, ultimately, a first-of-its-kind, home-run swing-off for all the marbles at Truist Park.
Keep track of all that?
Well we did, with all the best moments from an All-Star Game that will go down as an instant and unprecedented classic. Check them out below.
2025 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard
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• All-Stars show off their different styles at Red Carpet Show
• All-Star closer's Persian cat steals the show on her personal red carPET
1) The first swing-off in All-Star Game history
When the AL came all the way back to tie the game in the ninth inning, it became clear that we'd be seeing a first-of-its-kind finish. Due to a rule change in 2022, an All-Star tiebreaker was instituted where the game would be decided in a swing-off. Each team would send three hitters to the plate with three swings apiece, and the combined homer total would determine the winner.
- AL hitters: Brent Rooker, Randy Arozarena, Jonathan Aranda
- NL hitters: Kyle Stowers, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso
Rooker was first up, and he homered twice in his three swings to set a commanding tone, especially after Stowers only countered with one. Arozarena came up next and sent one homer out, seemingly extending the AL’s momentum.
But then Schwarber stepped up and brought the house down.
The Phillies slugger emphatically went 3-for-3, crushing his first homer 428 feet (107 mph off the bat), the second at 461 feet (109 mph) and the last -- and perhaps the most dramatic -- at 382 feet (94 mph), when he dropped all the way down to one knee and unleashed the hack by releasing his right hand on the follow-through, sending it nearly to the Chop House.
The NL roster that was still on hand, all of them standing outside the dugout for the theatrics, went nuts while Aranda stepped to the plate, needing a homer to tie. The Rays first baseman hit one off the top of the wall but ultimately came up short on all three cuts, which left Alonso in the proverbial on-deck circle without needing to come up.
“It was awesome,” Schwarber said. “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.”
Schwarber, who entered the game in the fifth inning while pinch-hitting for designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, flew out in his first at-bat, walked in his second then broke his bat on a lineout vs. Aroldis Chapman for the first out in the ninth inning, which ultimately played a part in how the game reached extras.
“I’ve got to say, it was pretty exciting,” AL manager Aaron 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. Like, guys were -- I mean, our side, to see how excited they were out there and it's like wiffle ball in the back yard. Here we go. Let's do it.”
2) The comeback kids
One night after Brent Rooker was eliminated from the Home Run Derby by virtue of, quite literally, less than an inch, he left no doubt with a three-run homer in the seventh inning off Giants reliever Randy Rodríguez, who hadn't allowed a home run since April. It got the AL on the board, and wound up being a key moment to set the stage for what was to come.
Rooker demolished a center-cut, 98 mph fastball from Rodríguez and sent it sailing 407 feet beyond the left-center-field wall with runners on first and second base and nobody out in the seventh.
And that’s when things really heated up.
Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia then walked, stole second base, advanced to third on an error by Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman attempting to throw him out and scored on an RBI groundout by Kansas City teammate Bobby Witt Jr.
Witt then got the rally going again in the ninth, ripping a down-the-line double to right field that plated Byron Buxton, who also doubled. And the fastest man in baseball then moved to third on a groundout and scored on a chopping infield single from Cleveland’s Steven Kwan to tie things up -- and with the AL down to its final strike, to boot.
3) Here comes Henry
Right after the National League took a commanding six-run lead with two home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Braves and MLB honored the man who was known for hammering home runs. In between the sixth and seventh inning on July 15 (7/15), MLB paid tribute to Hank Aaron’s iconic 715th home run.
On April 8, 1974, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Aaron hit the home run that passed Babe Ruth to become MLB’s all-time home run leader at the time. The tribute, which aired live on FOX, recreated the moment.
Footage from the home run was shown on the infield through projection mapping as the broadcast call played through the ballpark. And when the moment came for Aaron to hit the history-making home run, a firework ball launched through the air toward left-center field. Footsteps from the light show rounded the bases as images showed Aaron swarmed by his teammates and iconic phrases from the call were shown on the field before the number 715 appeared.
After the light show ended, Aaron’s wife, Billye Aaron, was shown on the scoreboard at Truist Park and received a standing ovation from the packed stadium.
4) Skenes as electric as advertised
The All-Star Game in Atlanta fittingly got off to a hot start, with Paul Skenes unleashing some of the highest-octane velocity ever seen in a Midsummer Classic.
The reigning National League Rookie of the Year Award winner dialed up his four-seam fastball for a pair of punchouts that were the fastest recorded by an All-Star starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008).
Skenes got Gleyber Torres to swing under an elevated heater clocked at 99.7 mph in a 2-2 count, then came back against the leadoff man’s Tigers teammate, Riley Greene, at 100.3 mph up-and-in for his first two outs of the game. He induced a weak groundout to Aaron Judge to cap his outing.
Those each surpassed the previous fastest strikeout by an All-Star Game starter, which was 99.5 mph by Max Scherzer back in 2013. They were also clocked higher than any of Skenes’ 131 strikeouts so far this season.
“That's what the All-Star Game is for,” Skenes said. “Every hitter is trying to hit a home run, and we're trying to strike everybody out.”
5) One of the greatest to do it
If this is Clayton Kershaw’s final Midsummer Classic, he went out on a high -- and humorous -- note, as the 11-time All-Star was mic’d up when taking over for Skenes to begin the second inning. Kershaw left an 89 mph fastball over the heart of the plate that Cal Raleigh yanked into left field, but the lefty was bailed out by a sliding catch from the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker to take away a would-be double.
“That was sick!” Kershaw shouted to FOX broadcasters Joe Davis and John Smoltz.
The 37-year-old then retired Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for a called strike three, at which point National League manager Dave Roberts -- who is also Kershaw’s Dodgers skipper -- relieved him while allowing him to take the baseball as a keepsake.
“That’s yours,” Roberts said. “You keep it.”
“Doc even let me say a couple things during the team meeting, which was awesome,” Kershaw said. “Things that I would never volunteer for, but I also realize that the opportunity is there, and so I don't want to pass that stuff up. So I think all of it was pretty cool.”
6) Pete's personal Derby; Carroll gets D-backs on board
Pete Alonso opted out of the Home Run Derby this year, but he was still chasing dingers. With runners on the corners and nobody out in the sixth, the Mets slugger ambushed a 1-0 fastball from Royals left-hander Kris Bubic and crushed it 99.7 mph to the opposite field, short of the Chop House but deep enough to give the NL a five-run cushion.
"It's an unbelievable environment here," Alonso -- who was resoundingly booed by the Braves crowd -- said in a dugout interview immediately following the homer.
Corbin Carroll kept the NL rally going two batters later with a massive solo shot to right-center field off Tigers right-hander Casey Mize, who relieved Bubic. With two strikes and two outs, Carroll caught all of a hanging changeup and sent it 414 feet well beyond the wall. The D-backs were the only team in the Majors without an All-Star Game homer before Carroll’s blast.
7) A Hall-of-Fame pitching change
Joe Torre was the AL manager the last time that the Midsummer Classic was in Atlanta 25 years ago, and the 84-year-old went through some all-time nostalgia in the top of the eighth inning. With nudging from AL skipper Aaron Boone, Torre was tasked with making a pitching change, relieving the White Sox’s Shane Smith for the Mariners’ Andrés Muñoz.
Torre, who serves as a special assistant to MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, was the manager for Boone’s lone season as an active Yankee in 2003, when Boone launched a pennant-clinching home run to defeat the Red Sox.
“I got him to do it in Spring Training in '24,” Boone said. “Took me a few days. I got him to do it and then he was gung-ho about it this year. Yeah, I said, ‘We're probably going to start with Smith here, get an out, and make a change. You ready?’ And he was all in. I think he ate it up this week.”
Torre managed 29 seasons in the Majors and ranks fifth all time with 2,326 managerial wins. Beyond his 12 seasons with the Yankees (1996-2007), with whom he won four World Series titles, he also was manager of the Mets (1977-81), Braves (1982-84), Cardinals (1990-95) and Dodgers (2008-10).
8) ABS offers glimpse of the future
The automated ball-strike challenge system could soon be coming to MLB, with the Midsummer Classic being used as a brief trial run after a more lengthy tryout this Spring Training.
And it didn’t take long for the first challenge to take place, as Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh did so on an 0-2 pitch from Tarik Skubal to Manny Machado that was initially called a ball by home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna in the first inning.
Raleigh tapped on his helmet just seconds before Skubal did the same, a sign that both the pitcher and catcher felt they deserved the punchout.
As the two players – who were both mic’d up for the FOX broadcast – watched the replay on the video board in center field, Skubal asked Raleigh, “What do you think, Cal, how’d you do?”
Raleigh replied, “I think it’s a strike.”
He was right. The call was overturned, sending Machado back to the dugout.
“Honestly, I wasn't even going to use them,” Skubal said. “But I felt like that was a strike. Then you want that on an 0-2 count, especially with the way the inning was going, the ball kind of finding a lot of grass. So yeah, I think it's coming. Might as well get used to it.”