In the 86th edition of the MLB All Star Game, the stars from both leagues put on a great show, but it was the American League that ended up winning the game 6-3, and coming away with homefield advantage in this season's World Series.
The Midsummer Classic is always a spectacle to see and this years' edition at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, sure didn't let baseball down.
There has been much talk of the 'new face of baseball,' and right away, the posterchild for that new campaign started it off with a bang. Mike Trout led off the ballgame with a solo home run to get the American League out to an early 1-0 lead. This was the first lead off homer since 1989 by the great Bo Jackson.
Dodgers right hander Zach Greinke and Astros southpaw Dallas Keuchel got the starts for their respective leagues and one had some issues, while the other pushed away the nerves and dealt. Both turned in two innings a piece for their sides.
Greinke got roughed up right away as he gave off a leadoff homer to Trout, but kept the AL off of the scoreboard for the rest of his outing. Keuchel on the other hand had a perfect first inning, but gave up one run, which ended up being unearned.
The National League cracked the scoreboard for the first time in the second inning behind a Jhonny Peralta RBI single that scored Paul Goldschmidt to knot the score up at one.
From there, the likes of Felix Hernandez and David Price for the AL and Madison Bumgarner and Gerrit Cole for the NL turned in scoreless innings for their sides in the third and fourth innings.
It wasn't until the fifth inning that the American League took the lead back. Prince Fielder, who pinch hit for starting DH Nelson Cruz, knocked a single into left that scored Mike Trout. That was followed by starter Lorenzo Cain hitting a double that scored Albert Pujols. That made the scored 3-1 and the AL was able to plate two runs against reigning NL MVP, Clayton Kershaw.
In the top of the sixth inning, Jacob deGrom came into the ballgame on the mound and turned in potentially the most impressive outing of the entire night. He needed just 10 pitches to strike out side for the National League. He was pumping his fastball and using that nasty slider to bury hitters. It was all filth from the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year.
Following deGrom's impressive outing, Andrew McCutchen clocked a leadoff solo home run off of Chris Archer to start the sixth inning for the NL to make it 3-2 and cut their deficit in half. Archer pitched 1.1 innings before giving way to Zach Britton who finished the inning without giving up a run.
After McCutchen brought the NL to within one, the AL got the bats out and extended their lead in the seventh. Manny Machado started it off with a double scoring Brock Holt and then Prince Fielder turned in his second RBI on a sac fly to score Machado and make it 5-2. Those runs came off of Francisco Rodriguez of the Brewers.
The AL still wasn't done scoring come the eighth inning. Brian Dozier, who deserved an All Star selection from the very beginning, sent a solo shot into the night off of Mark Melancon, to extend the AL lead to 6-2.
Aroldis Chapman got the chance to pitch the ninth inning in front of his hometown fans and struck out the side while living the the triple digits on his fastball throughout the inning. Nothing new for the Cuban southpaw.
The National League tried a comeback effort in the ninth inning behind a leadoff triple by Ryan Braun. Braun came around to score on a sac fly by Brandon Crawford to make it 6-3, but Glen Perkins put the stopper right there and finished out a win for the American League for the second straight season.
This win gives the American League their 15th win in the last 20 All Star games.
Mike Trout is the first back-to-back winner of the Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP award as he ended the night with 1-for-3 with two runs scored, one RBI, one walk and a home run to boot.