He's only made 11 starts in the majors but Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes will showcase his power when he ... [+]
After stopping a nine-year American League winning streak in the All-Star Game last July, the National League is counting on young pitching to prevail in the 94th Midsummer Classic Tuesday.
The game, set for Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX, will feature the first All-Star appearance by Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh power pitcher picked first in the 2023 amateur draft.
The 6'6" right-hander is the fifth freshman pitcher to start an All-Star Game but may last only an inning, according to National League manager Torey Lovullo of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"We'll see what's going on there,” Lovullo said after announcing his selection on radio Friday. “We've got 11 guys to get there. Paul's going to throw up a big zero in the first inning for us and we'll take it from there.”
Skenes made his major-league debut May 11 and has since fanned 89 hitters in 66 1/3 innings.
In his last start, he worked seven hitless innings and struck out 11 Brewers in a 1-0 Pittsburgh win at Milwaukee County Stadium. That left him with a 6-0 record and 1.90 earend run average – not bad for someone with only 11 big-league starts on his resume.
The National League’s pitching is favored to prevail for the second year in a row. The NL won last year’s game in Seattle by a 3-2 score. Backup catcher Einar Diaz hit a two-run homer in the eighth to provide the margin of victory.
Skenes, at 22, is younger than Doc Gooden was when he became the youngest All-Star in 1995. And there’s no challenger to Satchel Paige, who became the oldest All-Star at age 47 in 1953 en route to a berth in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Fans, players, and managers not only picked 32-man rosters for each league but 36 first-timers.
That includes every National League pitcher except Zack Wheeler, who is sidelined by injury; fellow starter Chris Sale, selected for the eighth time; and closer Ryan Helsley.
The Senior Circuit’s pitching staff has youth on its side, with starters Hunter Greene, Logan Webb, Ranger Suarez and relievers Ryan Helsley and Tanner Scott all under 30 in addition to Skenes.
They will be charged with stifling an American League lineup dominated by the right-left power of Yankees teammates Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
There’s only one hometown player on the AL roster, however, in Texas second baseman Marcus Semien.
The Rangers will also be represented by manager Bruce Bochy, who managed four National League All-Star teams before coming to Texas last year, and his coaches and trainers.
A righty pitcher but left-handed slugger, Shohei Ohtani is a DH only in his first season with the ... [+]
Shohei Ohtani, the runaway favorite for 2024 National League MVP honors over the first half, can’t pitch in the wake of elbow surgery but can continue to provide the lethal left-handed power he has given Los Angeles in his first year as designated hitter for the Dodgers.
Ohtani leads the NL in home runs while fellow DH Marcell Ozuna ranks first in runs batted in.
With pitchers likely to work no more than inning apiece, the 2024 All-Stars could challenge the record for most runs scored in an All-Star Game (21 in the National League’s 13-8 victory at Coors Field in 1998) and the most runs scored by either league (13 in both that game and in the 1983 Golden Anniversary All-Star Game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park).
The American League won the first All-Star Game, played at Comiskey in 1933, and take a 47-44-2 record into this year’s game.
The Midsummer Classic last came to Texas in 1995, when the only three hits produced by the National League were all solo home runs – good enough to turn the tide in a 3-2 verdict.
Globe Life Field opened on July 24, 2020 and hosted the first neutral-site World Series that fall in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic that shortened the season to 60 games. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, four games to two.
Players get $1,000 stipends, plus travel, food, and lodging expenses, if selected for an All-Star team. Many also get special All-Star bonuses contained in their contracts and are able to realize more revenue from sales of their baseball cards and other memorabilia after playing in the All-Star Game.
To cite one example, two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper, starting first baseman for the National League, is sitting on a $50,000 payday because of the All-Star bonus negotiated for him by super-agent Scott Boras.
