Where were Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani?
That was the obvious question after the All-Star Game ended in a dramatic home run swing-off on Tuesday night in Atlanta, the first ever of its kind, after the game itself was played to a 6-6 tie after nine innings.
Three players on each side, three swings each. Those were the rules.
If ever there was a spot for Judge, this was it. But apparently Judge and Ohtani had already left Truist Park for a private flight to enjoy the off days before the second half of the season resumes, as many of the top stars for years have done after being taken out of the game.
Too bad. What potential for even more drama. It could have come down to Judge and Pete Alonso, who was lined up to hit third for the National League, a spot that figured to decide the swing-off.
Except Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber intervened with quite a clutch feat, hitting three home runs in his three swings, to put the NL over the top by a count of 4-3, and render Alonso’s swings unnecessary when the Rays’ Jonathan Aranda went homerless in his three swings.
Aranda instead of Judge. That’s quite a whiff for MLB.
Of course, nobody could have predicted the game would end in a tie, and this new format would be invoked for the first time ever.
Furthermore, Judge is one player who always does the right thing and may not have even been aware of the new format, which was adopted only last season and had received little publicity.
Still, with that type of drama as a possibility, MLB ought to make sure the biggest stars are there at the end just in case. Alonso told reporters the swing-off participants are named by the manager before the game, but suffice to say, both managers knew Judge and Ohtani wouldn’t be there.
In any event, if the swing-off seemed a hokey way to decide the game, it also came with genuine enthusiasm, as players from both teams lined up outside the dugout to cheer on the participants.
“The boys were into it,” was the way Schwarber put it when interviewed on the field afterward.
Even a traditionalist like Derek Jeter, commenting for FOX, admitted, “I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it was probably better than playing extra innings. It was exciting.”
The new format was adopted so that managers wouldn’t have to save pitchers for the potential of extra innings, thereby giving the most players the best chance to participate.
And as it turned out, a two-run rally in the ninth inning by the American League, which included the tying run scoring against Edwin Diaz on a slow roller by Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians, made the swing-off possible.
It also denied a likely MVP award for Alonso, who had hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning off Royals lefty Kris Bubic to give the NL a 5-0 lead at the time.
And maybe it would have gone differently had NL manager Dave Roberts simply turned the ninth inning over to Diaz. Instead, he went first to Padres closer Robert Suarez, who gave up a run on one-out doubles by Byron Buxton and Bobby Witt Jr.
So with the tying run on second, Roberts brought in Diaz. He was fortunate when Matt Olson fielded Jazz Chisolm Jr.’s scorcher down the first-base line, tossing to Diaz covering for the second out of the inning.
With Witt Jr. at third, Diaz got Kwan, the little lefty slap hitter, to make soft contact on a back-door slider, but third baseman Eugenio Suarez had no chance to throw him out, and the game was tied.
Diaz got out of the inning by striking out Randy Arozarena on a two-strike pitch called a ball, and then overturned by Diaz’s challenge of the pitch by the ABS challenge system that was used for the All-Star Game.
All of which led to the swing-off and what could have been a fabulous finish for Alonso.
As it was, he said he was thrilled with his home run in the actual game after deciding to skip Monday's Home Run Derby for the first time in his career.
"That beats any Derby win,” Alonso told reporters in Atlanta. “That’s really special. The Derby is just batting practice at the end of the day. To do it playing in a game against the league’s best, that’s really special.”
Still, it could have been extra special.
Alonso said that during the swing-off, he was in the indoor cage, taking swings and watching Schwarber on a nearby TV monitor.
“He put on a hell of a show,” Alonso said. “I was standing by the cage, saying ‘hell, yeah, Schwarbs.’ I mean he’s my teammate here, so I was rooting for him.
“I was still ready for my moment if it came. Instead, we did it the easy way.”
Aranda came within a couple of feet of tying the swing-off at 4-4 as he hit one high off the wall in right.
All in all, it made for some unexpected drama that can’t be scripted. It was fun without Judge and Ohtani. It would have been a lot more fun with them.
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