MLB All-Star Game Makes History With Home Run Tiebreaker

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5 days ago

ATLANTA — The sport that gave fans the ghost runner on second base to help expedite regular-season games that go to extra innings also gave everyone the first home run swing-off in history to decide an All-Star Game on Tuesday night.
'First time of it, there was a lot of pressure, but I thought it was pretty exciting,' Aaron Boone, the manager of the American League, said after the extracurricular home-run session.
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The new rule—if the All-Star Game is tied after nine innings, a home-run swing-off determines the winner—was implemented for the first time when the AL came back from a 6-0 deficit on Tuesday and tied the score 6-6 with two runs in the top of ninth at Truist Park in Atlanta. The National League prevailed when game MVP Kyle Schwarber mashed three long balls on the three pitches he faced.
'It was like a hockey shootout,' Schwarber said.
The new All-Star tie-breaking rule was memorialized in the last Basic Agreement to avoid long extra-inning All-Star Games; the 2002 Midsummer Classic in Milwaukee had to be halted tied 7-7 in 11 innings because both teams ran out of pitchers.
The rules are simple—the day before the game, both managers must designate three batters and an alternate to participate in the potential swing-off. They look for players with power who are going to play late in the contest, NL manager Dave Roberts said.
That's why Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani weren't available; they left the game early and weren't designated for the swing-off assignment.
'[Roberts] asked yesterday, 'if there was a tie would you do it?'' Schwarber said. 'I said, 'absolutely,' not thinking we're going to end up in a tie when I said yes.'
Each batter gets three swings in three concerted rounds, one batter from each league in each round. At the end, the homers are tallied for the final score. If it's still tied after those three rounds, then it goes to sudden death—the swing-off ends on the next homer.
Boone designated Brent Rooker, Randy Arozarena and Jonathan Aranda. Roberts chose Eugenio Suarez, Schwarber and Pete Alonso, Rooker and Alonso both hit three-run homers earlier in the game.
Suarez was hit with a pitch on the tip of his left pinky during the top of the eighth and went for X-rays that Roberts said were negative. He remained in the game, but had doubts about swinging in the extra round.
'I have the rest of the season still to play,' Suarez said. 'I didn't want to take the chance.'
Instead, Roberts replaced him with his alternate, Kyle Stowers.
Rooker got the AL off to a quick lead with two homers in the first round. Stowers hit one for the NL. The AL was leading 3-1 adding an Arozarena blast when Schwarber came to the plate in the bottom of the second round. He hit each pitch out, one longer than the other.
'I was just thinking, 'Well, if I can get two here, [Alonso] can just finish it off,'' Schwarber said. 'I got two right away and was able to sneak that third one out.'
Aranda went homerless, meaning Alonso never had to hit. The unique proceedings was over.
'It'll be interesting to see where this goes,' Boone said after the game. 'There's probably a world when you can see that on the field maybe in some regular-season mix, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if some people started talking about it like that. It's a blast. You get to it and all of a sudden, here you go.'
Like the ghost runner, stranger things have happened.
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