Eric Hosmer, the game’s MVP with two RBIs, stroked a second-inning, opposite-field field homer when he squared up a 91-mph Cueto fastball to tie the game 1-1.
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Yes, Hosmer delivered a second hit and an RBI with a sharp single to left off the glove of Bryant the following inning, but that turns out to be an insurance run the AL never needs. And with the win, the Junior Circuit secured home-field advantage in the World Series for the fourth straight season.
Royals first baseman, Eric Hosmer, made his first All-Star appearance on Tuesday and had quite the performance, but it’s what happened after the game that has Royals fans all over proud of the 26-year-old. The mammoth man has announced that at age 40 this will be his final season.
Goose Gossage keeps a bottle of Weibel Vineyards champagne with “Cubs” on the label perched on a shelf in his pantry, a reminder of when Chicago arrived in San Diego needing one win to reach the 1984 World Series and wound up crushed yet again. Ortiz left the game when manager Ned Yost put in a pinch runner.
Last year, Hosmer scored the game-tying run in the ninth inning for the Royals in their decisive Game 5 victory over the New York Mets in the World Series. But Addison Russell, who went 0-for-2, grounded into a force play to end that threat.
This was, in all likelihood, David Ortiz’s last All-Star game. “I want to watch him hit a home run”.
Tony Gwynn, the greatest Padre ever and one of history’s finest hitters, passed away two years ago, and holding this event in San Diego felt a little weird without him. To honor the Hall of Famer, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is renaming the AL and NL batting titles to honor Rod Carew and Gwynn, respectively.
“I think a lot of us were looking first pitch”, said Bryant, who played college ball for the University of San Diego.
The game had a lot of action early.
Kris Bryant and Marcell Ozuna had RBI’s for the NL.
The AL is 29-7-1 in the last 37 All-Star games since the NL took 19 of 20 from 1963-62.
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Mike Trout, the All-Star MVP in 2014 and ’15, singled in the first for a five-All-Star Game hitting streak – only Mickey Mantle, Joe Morgan and Dave Winfield (seven each) and Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Nellie Fox (six apiece) strung together more.
