Kyle Schwarber named MVP as NL takes All-Star Game on the first home run swing-off

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ATLANTA — Minutes before he went to one knee and golfed a pitch into the right-field seats at Truist Park to effectively seal an All-Star Game victory for the National League on Tuesday night, Kyle Schwarber had to retrieve a new piece of lumber.

He hadn’t expected to replace the bat he shattered in the bottom of the ninth inning when he turned a 100 mph sinker into a lineout. Before eight-time All-Star Aroldis Chapman retired the two hitters who followed him to the plate, Schwarber held out hope that his NL teammates could break a 6-6 tie.

They didn’t. That set the Philadelphia Phillies slugger up for a unique challenge: the first tie-breaking home run swing-off in the history of the Midsummer Classic.

He rose to the occasion. With the NL trailing three homers to one after two American Leaguers batted, Schwarber launched homers on all three of his swings. The Tampa Bay Rays’ Jonathan Aranda, the third and final AL hitter, failed to hit a ball over the fence when he came in, leading the NL to a 7-6 win and Schwarber to an All-Star Game MVP award.

Schwarber, in his third All-Star Game, was surprised to find himself playing a significant role in the outcome. Shohei Ohtani had started over him at designated hitter, and Schwarber went 0-for-2 after replacing the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star in the sixth inning.

“There’s a lot of guys who are way more deserving of this award,” Schwarber said after the game. “But just happy that it’s going to be — we get a win with the National League and it’s going to come home with us to Philly.”

Though he had agreed to compete in a swing-off if one materialized, Schwarber assumed after the NL took a 6-4 lead into the ninth inning without a contribution from his bat that he wouldn’t need to.

“As the game’s going, you’re looking at the score, you’re not really thinking the game’s going to end in a tie,” he said.

Then the Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton and Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. hit back-to-back doubles off San Diego Padres closer Robert Suarez with one out to make it a close game. The New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz, a three-time All-Star, got the next out. The Cleveland Guardians’ Steven Kwan, however, beat out a chopper to the left side of the infield, allowing Witt to score the tying run.

The NL failed to rally off Chapman. With the game in a 6-6 deadlock after nine, the first derby tiebreaker went into effect. The rule was implemented as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. Previous All-Star Games that were tied after nine went extra innings, most recently at Nationals Park in 2018, when the AL won in 10.

Schwarber, Pete Alonso of the Mets and Kyle Stowers of the Miami Marlins were part of the group formed to redeem the NL, defeating an American League trio made up of the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, the Seattle Mariners’ Randy Arozarena and Aranda. Stowers, who took Eugenio Suárez’s place in the swing-off after the Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman was hit in the hand in the eighth, was the only other NL hitter to participate in the tiebreaker.

The players in the swing-off were tapped for the tiebreaker before the game began.

“You’ve got a guy who can really hit with bat to ball and has huge power,” NL manager Dave Roberts said of Schwarber. “It’s fun to watch.”

The final score was not representative of a contest that had been relatively boring until Alonso crushed a pitch over the right-field fence in the sixth inning to give the NL a 5-0 lead.

Through the first five innings, the scoring was limited to the NL’s two first-inning runs off AL starter Tarik Skubal and seven hits combined. A pair of NL pitchers compiled the extended highlights — with young Pittsburgh Pirates starter Paul Skenes striking out two of the three batters he faced and reaching at least 98 mph on 13 of his 14 pitches, and honorary All-Star Clayton Kershaw getting two outs in the second inning before being removed by his Dodgers manager, Roberts, for an ovation.

Things were quiet until Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. strode into the batter’s box in the sixth inning, worked a 3-2 count against the Royals’ Kris Bubic and drew a walk on a high-and-away fastball. Then, Brendan Donovan of the Cardinals singled through the left side of the infield four pitches later.

That brought up Alonso, who notably recused himself from this year’s Home Run Derby despite having participated in it in his previous four All-Star campaigns and winning it twice. Within moments of a fan near the press box chanting, “We want offense,” Alonso delivered, drilling Bubic’s center-cut heater to right field for a 367-foot three-run blast.

Diamondbacks center fielder Corbin Carroll, participating in his second All-Star Game, padded the NL’s lead with a solo shot.

The output was nearly enough to keep the American League at bay, even after Rooker, who missed the semifinals of Monday’s Derby by less than an inch, lofted a middle fastball to left-center field for a three-run homer with no outs in the seventh. Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski, added to the All-Star roster after making just five major-league starts, retired three of four batters in the eighth to keep the NL in the lead.

However, after the National League stranded two runners in the bottom of the inning, the American League pounced, leading to the first All-Star Game tiebreaker.

“That was like the baseball version of a shootout or extra time,” Schwarber said. “So it was really fun. I credit the guys, too, on our side, who were really into it. They were cheering along. The fans were into it. Watching the last guy there, and we were all kind of just really into it, hoping that last ball wasn’t going to sneak out or the one before that that hit off the wall that didn’t sneak out. And (it) ended up going our way.”

(Photo of Kyle Schwarber celebrating with his teammates: Katharine Lotze / Getty Images)




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