NL Beats AL in first All Star Swing Off

No All-Star Game had ever ended like this. No MLB game had. It was the sort of ending ordinarily reserved for Wiffle ball wonderment or our most bonkers baseball.

What will go down, technically, as a 7-6 win – just the second for the NL in the last 12 Midsummer Classics – the 95th All-Star Game was the first of its kind. It was 6-6 after nine innings, and then the NL outhomered the AL, 4-3, in what was arranged as a six-man swing-off.

Because of his perfect showing in the swing-off, Schwarber was named the Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP presented by Chevrolet.

The tater-driven tiebreaker was installed as part of the current collective bargaining agreement but never needed until the AL stormed back from a 6-0 deficit and wound up tying the regulation tilt in the top of the ninth. AL manager Aaron Boone and NL skipper Dave Roberts each selected three players to receive three swings apiece, with the most total homers per side victorious.

The in-game recognition – on 7/15 – of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s famous 715th homer to pass Babe Ruth proved prescient. During an impressive projection of Aaron, pitcher Al Downing and the others on the field and a pyrotechnic blast reproducing the flight of one of the most famous home runs in MLB history, we once again heard the call of the late, great Vin Scully.

On the innovation front, this was the first All-Star Game to feature the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system, which resulted in three erroneous calls getting overturned in short order. The ABS challenge could be coming to an MLB park near you as soon as 2026.