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The 96th MLB All-Star game had just one extra base hit in it. This right here. First-time All-Star Miguel Vargas taking his former minor league teammate Justin Rubelsky out and gone for a solo home run. Rubelsky's birthday as well. So, spoil that then. Last chance for the National League. Brian Baker gets Sal Stewart to ground out. Ballgame. The American League shuts out the National League four to nothing. The first shutout of the Midsummer Classic in some 13 years. The National League held to just three hits. And get this, 10 of the 11 American League pitchers recorded at least one strikeout. Baker the only one not to record a strikeout. Dylan Cease three
strikeouts in the first inning. Two Yankees provided three runs. Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice in the first inning. And the National League struck out 15 times in this game as the American League bounces back from losing last season in a swing off. Not a whole lot of swings in this one. A lot of swings and misses. The AL champions of the Midsummer Classic. Get some instant analysis. Welcome in former MLB Executive of the Year Jim Bowden and CBS Sports National Baseball reporter Julian McWilliams who joins us from Philadelphia. Julian, I'll go your way first. Just the vibe and the reaction that you had there watching the All-Star game and the way it played out because we didn't get the fireworks we
were expecting, but we still saw a couple of cool moments. Yeah, absolutely. And Hakeem, my favorite moment today was obviously the Miguel Vargas home run a home run. I'm still picturing him when he hit the home run, um, just his ability to be able to get to the ball, but I'm still picturing his sitting there after he gets traded from the Dodgers to the White Sox and he just looked so sad and down on himself. Now you can fast forward to this year and he has 21 homers on the year and oh by the way, he hits it off his fellow teammate his former teammate right there. It couldn't get any better than that.
Jim, the National League was heralded as the better team here and they strike out 15 times in this game held to just three hits. Your reaction is what? Well, elite pitching always stops great hitting, right? And when you get the elite of the elite on the mound and that's what we got to see in the All-Star game. We just got to see phenomenal pitching and I think there was a moment that kind of typified everything for me is when Kate Smith came to the mound against Bryce Harper after the standing ovation he got from the home crowd and after throwing a high 90s fastball, he put Bryce Harper away with a split finger that literally
dropped a foot and Bryce swung at least 5 in on top of it. But it was just a reminder of the kind of stuff we saw all night from all of the pitchers in the American League who absolutely dominated this National League lineup with 15 punch outs. But this game was done so well in Philadelphia. I loved the introductions, having the players come out with that feather pen and signing the lineup card. That was a really cool moment. I also thought the fireworks in the middle of the game and the video tribute that they did was absolutely special and incredible. So, a lot of credit goes to Philadelphia and Major League Baseball for the great show they put on, but really this game was all
about pitching and the American League pitchers were just absolutely dominant. Yeah, the starters signing the lineup signing their names like our forefathers signed the declaration of independence. Incredible, incredible moment. I mean, that's just creative there. We go signing also by the way, I'd like to know how much that sells for. Um, because those are that's be quite a souvenir to have that lineup card there signed much like the Declaration of Independence back in 1776. Here we are in 2026 and celebrating America's birthday and you saw a lot of things. The sandlot scene as you mentioned Jim, uh you saw some of the fun throughout the game and the excitement in the moments, but I
also want to bring up the fact Julian as well about the first-time All-Stars here. Dylan Cease, Ben Rice, Ernie Clement, Miguel Vargas, all first-time All-Stars all having a hand in this game and as if we've said before, this game is in good hands with the young stars that we have in Major League Baseball. Absolutely and we look at the fact that Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge didn't play him and we did miss those guys because those are giants in our sports. But to be able to see like the guy that you mentioned from Ben Rice to Ernie Clement, uh James Wood even though he didn't have a great at bat and lost out that at bat there. Um Jordan Walker uh to be able to
do what he did in the home run derby last night and now he's the guy sort of the face of the St. Louis Cardinals. You see so many guys emerging into their own that have in the past haven't net had that platform that stage. Granted Ernie Clement had that stage in the World Series last year, but he wasn't stamped as a star in this game and I think now after tonight and after everything that this team that has gone through the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees missing Aaron Judge, you're now looking at these guys saying, "Okay, they can contribute factor to a playoff team and to a team that could possibly uh make a run in the postseason."
We're also seeing guys resuscitate their careers as well and most notably Cody Bellinger wins All-Star Game MVP. Two RBI single in the first uh inning, we saw Yankee players with three RBIs. That was the first time the Yankees had three RBIs in a first inning since May. I know that's a funny thing to say, but they've been scuffling obviously in some games and you see these Yankee players in Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice stepping up providing three runs in the first inning. And for Cody Bellinger, Jim, this is what the Yankees had hoped for him when they signed him last year. And now you see him here in the All-Star game and it wasn't flashy. It was a two RBI single, bases are loaded, but gets
it done, moves the runners along. Yeah, it is flashy to me though, right? Because it's left on left again and that's what Cody Bellinger has done all year long. He's been one of the best left-handed hitters against left-handed pitching and wasn't trying to do too much. I mean, look, Christopher Sanchez had a tough first inning. He didn't have command or control of his stuff. He had a couple of walks in that first inning. But what you saw with the American League bats in the first inning that really won the game is the big hitters didn't try to do too much, right? Yordan Alvarez, base hit up the middle. Okay, great. Bellinger comes up in that situation. He didn't try to do too much.
Line drive up the middle, two RBIs, gets the MVP. Ben Rice follows. He doesn't try to pull the ball. Line drive up the middle. So those three big hits that the American League had in the first inning to win the game, they were just singles up the middle part of the field. Let's not try to do too much against this pitching. Let's go up the middle. But more importantly, it was three left-handed hitters against one of the best left-handed pitchers in the National League in Christopher Sanchez. And again, the hitters just had quality at-bats and that was the game because really after that, the only run we saw after the first inning was that home run by Miguel Vargas. And by the way, that first inning where both Rice and
Bellinger got RBIs, that's only the second time in baseball history that teammates have driven in two runs in the first inning since 1977 when Joe Morgan and George Foster did it representing the Cincinnati Reds. Yeah, great pull there by you as well as you see Cody Bellinger, the fourth Yankee to win All-Star Game MVP. I mean, he's got a plenty of awards on his mantle and on his resume and certainly something to add to his collection. One of the most talented players in the game right now. Julian, you've been there in Philadelphia all week. You got to see the Home Run Derby in person. Jordan Walker with an epic comeback there against Kyle Schwarber in the final
round. You see the All-Star Game and the festivities. How would you describe the week there, All-Star Week and the festivities in Philadelphia? Last year was the best World Series I've ever covered hockey and obviously for obvious reasons. This was the best All-Star Game I've covered, hands down. Wow, okay. And I'm telling you just and I think I give Philly people a lot of flat cuz I went to school here, right? But at Temple University. But their fans, the way they show out, I mean, it's incredible from how they cheer on their home crowd team,
how they cheer on their home grown players, their players in general, how they boo the others. I was waiting for them to get to Jordan Walker today because it was a scene just when they announced him just to hear the amount of booze. And look, the players I think they get it, they relish in it, and they understand what Philadelphia is, and there's there was no other show in baseball when it comes to an All-Star Game that I think was better than Philadelphia because my goodness, they put on this week and from Jennifer Hudson to Patti LaBelle to Boyz II Men, like you name it. It they just kept coming with all this just different forms of entertainment wrapped up into one and it was just so great to watch and be in person and to witness.
And you know, one of the moments Hakim that I loved during the game that we haven't talked about was that amazing play there Ernie Clement made to his right, robbing the Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages of a base hit. It was an incredible play, but it was a cool moment because we all remember it was Andy Páez robbing Ernie Clement to win the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers in that game seven. And here was Clement with a moment, and just watching his eye contact with Páez was absolutely classic right after that play. And that'll be the best defensive play that I'll remember from this All-Star game.
Certainly different stakes, but uh always like to get one on a guy after a moment like that. Jim Bowden, Julian McWilliams here with us on CBS Sports HQ recapping the midsummer classic from Philadelphia. Men, thank you. And look, every time Philadelphia had hosted the All-Star game, the NL had won three and oh in the city of Philadelphia. Well, add a loss to that column now as the American League shuts out the National League four to nothing, the first shut out at a midsummer classic in some 13 years.
