2024 MLB All-Star Game: Top 4 takeaways

Major League Baseball held its 94th All-Star Game on Tuesday night time in Texas, the primary to be hosted by the Rangers since 1995. That specific Midsummer Classic featured among the most harmful hitters of the ‘90s, like Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., and Mike Piazza. The MVP, nonetheless, turned out to be little-known Marlins outfielder Jeff Conine, who hit the go-ahead homer within the eighth.

The All-Star Game has a humorous method of churning out tales like that. Last year’s MVP, Rockies catcher Elias Díaz, can even attest to this. Indeed, the participant who struck the decisive blow within the loaded 2024 version would have been few people’ first guess — outdoors of New England, anyway. It’s arduous to beat the near-total anonymity of a Marlin or a Rockie within the grand scheme of issues, however earlier than Tuesday, the game’s eyes weren’t precisely laser-focused on Jarren Duran.

These had been the tales of the 2024 MLB All-Star Game, which noticed Duran take residence the MVP.

Jarren Duran calls for your consideration

Here’s a enjoyable truth: Only 4 place gamers in your entire American League tallied extra FanGraphs WAR within the first half than Red Sox middle fielder Jarren Duran, who leads the AL in doubles (27) and triples (10) whereas batting .284/.342/.477 in 95 video games. The quartet forward of Duran—Aaron Judge, Gunnar Henderson, Bobby Witt Jr., and Juan Soto—all simply tallied over one million All-Star votes to advance previous Phase 1. So did Steven Kwan, who was tied with Duran at 3.7 WAR.

Duran, nonetheless, wasn’t even near advancing. He was all the way in which down at sixteenth.

MLB PR

With all due respect to the AL Central-leading Guardians, I couldn’t pick Will Brennan or Tyler Freeman in a line of 100 folks should you gave me 98 guesses. Yet even they gathered extra votes than Duran. This was maybe a halo impact from Cleveland followers additionally displaying out for the deserving Kwan, however this shouldn’t have occurred to Duran, a proficient participant who occurs to don for one in all baseball’s most well-known uniforms frequently.

So the first-time All-Star needed to make the workforce as a reserve. For their credit score, Duran’s fellow gamers acknowledged his expertise by voting him onto the AL squad themselves. It took till the fifth inning for Duran to get his alternative, when skipper Bruce Bochy put him in middle to alleviate Judge. With two outs and Anthony Santander on first base, Duran took a strike from Hunter Greene. The Reds righty then left a splitter in the midst of the zone, and Duran didn’t miss it.

Per MLB’s Sarah Langs, Duran joined Boston icon David Ortiz and J.D. Drew—the final Red Sox participant to win All-Star Game MVP—as the one BoSox to go yard of their All-Star debut. He additionally gave the AL a 5-3 lead that it could not relinquish. Duran subsequently joined Drew, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Carl Yastrzemski in taking residence this version’s All-Star Game MVP; it shouldn’t be forgotten that honor is formally named the “Ted Williams All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award.”

Perhaps that is the highlight that Duran wanted to make his title identified on the nationwide stage. At the very least, if he’s hitting like this once more at this level subsequent 12 months, he’ll do much better than sixteenth within the voting!

There’s a cause why Shohei Ohtani was assured $700M

Fine, positive; if we wish to be technical, the precise worth of the heavily-deferred Ohtani deal is somewhere in the vicinity of $462 million. But it’s not precisely chump change, and even together with his immense fame and expertise, there have been issues about guaranteeing that a lot cash to somebody who might solely DH in Year 1, as Ohtani’s second main elbow surgical procedure final September put the star’s pitching profession on maintain till not less than 2025.

So 2024 has been completely about hitting for Ohtani, and the outcomes to this point in all probability have MLB pitchers hoping that his consideration is diverted once more as quickly as doable. In 94 video games for the Dodgers, he’s hit .316/.400/.635 with 29 homers and an NL-best 1.036 OPS. (Then once more, he had a 1.066 OPS final 12 months whereas being a two-way participant, so perhaps all hope is misplaced.)

Ohtani delivered the Senior Circuit’s solely All-Star Game scoring when he stepped as much as bat in opposition to Boston’s Tanner Houck. Like Duran, Ohtani received a fats splitter that was begging to be obliterated. The magnanimous DH obliged:

Four hundred toes later, the NL had a 3-0 lead. The man is one thing else.

We can be remiss if we didn’t level out that even gods will be humbled. Flamethrower Mason Miller has been one of many few vibrant spots in an in any other case somber ultimate season of Oakland A’s baseball. He was their lone rep named to the AL workforce, however he lifted Oakland up one final time within the All-Star highlight by hitting 103 mph whereas putting out Ohtani and Trea Turner in an ideal fifth.

Because Duran went yard within the subsequent half-inning, Miller was finally credited with the win. Long reside the Oakland Athletics.

We received Paul Skenes vs. Aaron Judge

It’s arduous to imagine that it was simply over 12 months in the past that Paul Skenes was chosen by the Pirates because the No. 1 general decide of the MLB Draft. Although Pittsburgh took it straightforward with him within the second half of 2023, they solely made him begin seven video games for Triple-A Indianapolis this 12 months earlier than calling him as much as The Show on May eleventh. There had been excessive hopes for Skenes, however few anticipated him to blitz by means of his competitors with such dominance by means of his first 11 big-league begins. The righty primarily compelled himself into the All-Star dialog with a 1.90 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 12.1 Okay/9 in 66.1 innings, to not point out a pair of no-hit bids that solely ended as a result of Pirates’ pitch rely restrictions.

It grew to become a no brainer for the National League to not solely title Skenes to the All-Star workforce, but additionally to have him begin the dang factor. He was simply the fifth rookie in MLB historical past to start out the Midsummer Classic, becoming a member of first-year wunderkinds like Fernando Valenzuela and Hideo Nomo. With the way in which that American League supervisor Bruce Bochy organized his lineup although, it was unclear if followers would get the chance to look at Skenes go toe-to-toe with Judge, the sport’s most intimidating masher.

The Yankees’ captain was batting cleanup, so Skenes was solely assured to face the primary three AL hitters. The third, nonetheless, was Soto, Judge’s fellow famous person in New York. During the FOX pregame present, Soto assured that we’d get the Skenes vs. Judge showdown.

Given that Soto’s .985 OPS is topped in MLB by solely Judge and Ohtani, the percentages had been good that he can be a person of his phrase. The former Nationals World Series hero additionally leads MLB with 79 walks, and certain sufficient, he stepped up with two outs and battled Skenes for seven pitches earlier than incomes an elusive free move off the up-and-comer.

Soto later admitted that he was really attempting to take Skenes deep, however settled for the stroll. Was all of it somewhat anticlimactic as a result of Judge immediately grounded right into a power out on the primary pitch he noticed in opposition to Skenes? Yes. But we respect Soto (and Skenes’) efforts.

The baseball gods appeared to understand Soto as effectively, as his third-inning grounder received by means of the infield and went for a hustle double that helped the AL tie the sport up at 3-3 after Ohtani’s homer. Soto’s two-bagger plated each Marcus Semien and Steven Kwan, and Soto himself scored when Kwan’s underrated teammate in Cleveland, David Fry, smacked a two-out single off Logan Webb.

Did you recognize that this All-Star Game was in Texas?

Little-known truth about this 12 months’s Midsummer Classic: It befell in Arlington.

According to my expert sources, “Arlington is a metropolis in Texas, west of Dallas.”

Like, they actually, actually wished you to know that it was in Texas.

They even went out of their method to function lassoing because the All-Star starters stepped onto the sector through the pregame intros, and cowboy hats for the youngsters who received to be on the sector with every starter.

Good factor that it didn’t really feel demeaning in any respect for some Texans to see the sports activities world as soon as once more make generalizations!

If MLB goes this over-the-top for Texas, then we higher get whacked over the pinnacle 10,000 instances with Outkast and ATLien references at subsequent 12 months’s All-Star Game in Atlanta. Host the MLB Draft at Magic City. Let the Coca-Cola Bear throw out the primary pitch. It’s in all probability what all of us deserve.