Well it was a good night for the Braves, at least. Both Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez pitched scoreless outings but it wasn’t enough as the American League took down the National League 5-3 Tuesday night in Arlington Texas.
Corbin Burnes of the Orioles and Paul Skenes of the Pirates were pegged by their respective managers to start the game, though another Brave, Chris Sale, probably had a pretty good shot at the honor had he not pitched the last game before the break. Both Skenes and Burnes pitched scoreless first innings, with Skenes vs Aaron Judge being the early exciting matchup. Unfortunately, the drama ended quickly with a 1-pitch groundout.
Max Fried was given an early chance as his appearance came in the bottom of second. He gave up a leadoff walk to Yordan Alvarez but then got Jose Ramierz on a flyout and both Vladimir Guerrero Jr and Adley Rutschman on groundouts to finish off a scoreless frame.
The National League’s most productive offensive inning came in the third, when Jurickson Porfar and Ketel Marte led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Shohei Ohtani then came up and launched a Tanner Houck fastball deep into the night for a 3-run homer to give the NL an early 3-0 lead.
It was a short-lived lead however as the American League immediately answered back. Logan Webb came in to pitch the third and gave a lead off single to Marcus Semien followed by a walk from Steven Kwan. Both runners advanced on a groundout and then Juan Soto drove in both with a 2-run double to make it 3-2.
David Fry of Cleveland then drove in Soto with an RBI single and the entire 3-0 nothing lead was gone.
With Hunter Greene on the mound in the fifth, the AL took their first lead of the game. Anthony Santander singled on a ground-ball to right and Jarred Duran of the Red Sox absolutely destroyed a ball deep into the right field seat for a 2-run homer, and gave the AL a 5-3 lead.
Reynaldo Lopez got his opportunity in the bottom of the 6th in what was really more of mid-inning relief appearance. Cristopher Sanchez of the Phillies got the first two outs of the 6th and Lopez was brought in to get the third out against Salvador Perez. Lopez went slider, slider, fastball to get to a 1-2 count, then blew Perez away with 97 mph fastball to end the inning and his night.
Marcell Ozuna had a chance to put his mark off the game in top of the seventh. Elly De La Cruz singled to start the inning, followed by a single from Bryan Reynolds two batters later. Ozuna was brought in with two runners and two outs with NL down by two runs. But Ozuna grounded out to Bobby Witt Jr deep in the hole at short, who made nice play and a strong throw to end the inning.
That was really the last threat the National League could muster up, as Kirby Yates, yes that Kirby Yates, and Emmanuel Clase finished the game off for the American League, who took home the victory 5-3.
The second half begins on Friday as the Braves are home to take on the St Louis Cardinals at Truist Park.
