Miguel Tejada, Mark Teixeira and their American League teammates gave a new-look All-Star game the same old result.
Tejada homered off John Smoltz to start the scoring, Teixeira added a two-run drive off Dontrelle Willis and the AL overcame Kenny Rogers' bumpy inning to beat the NL 7-5 Tuesday for its eighth straight win.
The AL's Mark Buehrle got the victory with two scoreless innings of work. The AL had a shutout going into the seventh, when Rogers gave up a two-run homer to Andruw Jones, prompting more boos for the Texas lefty, playing while appealing a 20-game suspension.
PHOTO: AP
The AL made it 3-0 since the change in 2003 that gave the All-Star-winning league homefield advantage in the World Series.
"We hope we make it this year," said Tejada, the Baltimore star who was selected the game's MVP.
Tejada, Teixeira and Buehrle were among 13 players getting their first All-Star starts in a game nothing like the famous 1971 classic about two miles away at Tiger Stadium. Eighteen future Hall of Famers played in that one, and six of them homered -- including Reggie Jackson, who hit the stunning shot off the light tower on top of the roof.
PHOTO: AP
The most famous player in this one was Houston's Roger Clemens, a month shy of his 43rd birthday. The Rocket, an All-Star for the 11th time, pitched a perfect fifth inning, retiring David Ortiz, Garret Anderson and Tejada. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner entered and exited to hundreds if not thousands of flashing camera bulbs aimed at him by the crowd of 41,617 in the wide, cavernous ballpark, which opened in 2000.
The most infamous player was the 40-year-old Rogers, who was booed loudly when introduced and tipped his cap to the crowd as he looked ahead stone-faced.
"I don't hold anything against anyone," Rogers said.
He was penalized by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for an outburst last month that sent a television cameraman to the hospital and prompted a police investigation.
"I wanted to pitch," Rogers said. "I didn't pitch last year in the game, and I think at this stage in my career it's something that's not expected from me."
AL manager Terry Francona didn't hesitate to use him.
"Kenny made a mistake," Francona said. "He's going to pay the price Major League Baseball says he should. ... I'm not supposed to sit in judgment."
Exactly 50 years to the day after the funeral of Arch Ward, the Chicago Tribune editor who invented the All-Star game, the starters entered the field with Hollywood glitz, coming out from a red carpet set up behind the plate.
Smoltz dropped to 1-2 in All-Star play, tying the record for losses -- he lost in 1989 and got the NL's last victory in 1996.
"This was certainly a fun one that I'll remember forever -- to go out there in front of friends and family, in my hometown," Smoltz said. "I wanted to have fun -- I wasn't going to get caught up in results."
Francona, who led the Boston Red Sox to their first title since 1918, had an odd turn in the ninth inning: He got to bring in Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees for the final out, and he struck out Morgan Ensberg for his second All-Star save.
"I heard Johnny Damon say something like, `Come on Mo,'" Francona said, referring to the Red Sox center fielder. "I looked at him and I said, `I bet I never would have heard you say that.' It was OK. You know what, for one night, it was pretty cool."
There were five double plays in the game, an All-Star record, including three turned by the AL. After Bobby Abreu, the record-setting winner of Monday's Home Run Derby, opened the game with sharp single to left off Buehrle, Tejada made a fancy flip to second base on Carlos Beltran's grounder to shortstop, starting the first of the double plays.
David Eckstein, the NL shortstop, threw out the swift Damon from the outfield grass starting off the bottom half. Eckstein's father, Whitey, was hospitalized Sunday with a kidney ailment and was taken off a respirator a couple hours before the game.
Tejada homered off Smoltz leading off the second, a 436-foot drive that landed in the middle of the seats beyond the left-field bullpens -- it would have been an easy home run even before the wall was brought in two years ago.
Ortiz's RBI single to the base of the right-field wall and Tejada's RBI grounder made it 3-0 in the third against Roy Oswalt, and Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-run single off Livan Hernandez in the fourth.
Teixeira's homer in the sixth boosted the lead to 7-0 and was a bit of a shocker. While he leads the AL in home runs with 25, they all were hit off right-handers. The switch-hitter doesn't have any in 85 at-bats against lefties.
"Left-handed right now I'm getting a lot more at-bats," he said. "I feel more locked in."
Jones, tied for the major league home run lead with 27, hit his second All-Star homer following one in 2003. Miguel Cabrera added a run-scoring grounder off Joe Nathan in the eighth, and Luis Gonzalez hit an RBI double in the ninth off B.J. Ryan and scored on a grounder by Carlos Lee.
Home Run Derby
Bobby Abreu has always been one of baseball's most unheralded stars.
Not anymore.
The Philadelphia Phillies right fielder won the Home Run Derby with a record-setting performance Monday night, hitting an astounding 24 homers in his first turn at bat before outslugging hometown favorite Ivan Rodriguez in the finals.
"This is something amazing," said Abreu, who is from Venezuela. "I don't know if I can sleep tonight."
He also smashed the mark for total homers with 41, besting Miguel Tejada's 2004 total of 27 by the second round. Abreu hit 11 in the finals, another derby record, to Rodriguez's five in an event that lasted 3 hours, 3 minutes.
"I'm tired," he said. "This is a beautiful night."
Abreu was the first contestant -- he also will hit leadoff for the National League in the All-Star game Tuesday night -- and he gave fans a spectacular show right from the start.
He homered on his first swing and didn't stop until he obliterated Tejada's previous mark of 15 homers in a round, set last year in Houston.
"Pretty sick," Boston's Johnny Damon said.
Batting left-handed and teeing off against his personal batting practice pitcher, Phillies bullpen coach Ramon Henderson, Abreu topped out with a 517-foot shot onto the porch above the back row of right-field bleachers, sending the standing-room crowd scurrying for a souvenir.
It was the third-longest drive in the 20 times the derby has been held, behind Sammy Sosa's 524-foot homer in 2002 at Miller Park in Milwaukee and Frank Thomas' 519-footer in 1994 at old Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
"I was feeling so good, I couldn't believe what I was doing in the first round," Abreu said. "It's tough to believe."
ESPN estimated that Abreu's 41 homers traveled 17,565 feet. He even chipped his bat on his 21st homer -- but the ball still cleared the center-field fence.
"See that? Hit it too hard," he said before Phillies teammate Jimmy Rollins brought him some new lumber.
Abreu went the other way to left-center for No. 24, then finally made his 10th out after 17 minutes at the plate, ending his turn and prompting a third standing ovation.
"Just trying to put on a good show. They enjoy it, that's what it's all about," he said.
Boston's David Ortiz of the Dominican Republic put on an impressive show as well, also surpassing Tejada with 17 home runs in the first round. But Ortiz was overshadowed -- and eliminated when he connected only three times in Round 2.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS