PHILADELPHIA — Dylan Cease started a parade of pitchers that shut down a slew of the sport’s best batters in a display of the pitching dominance that currently rules Major League Baseball.
“I thought before the game about starting with a changeup,” the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander said, “and I thought it would be funny.”
He didn’t. And the opposing hitters were not laughing.
Cease struck out the side in the first inning, and 10 relievers followed him as they combined on a three-hitter that led the American League over the National League, 4-0, in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park.
The 30-year-old Cease, a first-time selection to the Midsummer Classic, fanned a trio of players from the NL East Division — Kyle Schwarber of the host Philadelphia Phillies, Juan Soto of the New York Mets and CJ Abrams of the Washington Nationals — around a walk in the first inning, when he got six misses among 15 swings. He became just the seventh pitcher to strike out three batters in the opening inning of an MLB All-Star Game, joining Carl Hubbell (1934), Warren Spahn (1949), Jim Palmer (1977), Dave Stieb (1983), Pedro Martinez (1999) and Brad Penny (2006).
After speaking with Detroit Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander, the senior selection on the AL roster and a 10-time MLB All-Star, Cease gave up the idea of starting with a changeup and instead threw Schwarber a 96.9 mph four-seamer.
“Verlander talked me out of it,” Cease said. “So we started with the heater, and then I was glad we did.”
Pitchers struck out 27 batters in all — a nine-inning record for the exhibition, which was played for the 96th time — including 15 by AL arms.
“That’s the game now. Guys’ stuff is unbelievable,” said AL manager John Schneider, also Cease’s skipper in Toronto, which won the pennant last year. “I think the bullpen guys kind fed off of it. They were all excited coming off the mound. It speaks volumes to how good the pitching is, for sure.”
Game MVP Cody Bellinger hit a two-run single, and New York Yankees teammate Ben Rice followed with an RBI single in the first against Cristopher Sánchez, who started for the NL in his home ballpark.
Miguel Vargas of the Chicago White Sox added an eighth-inning home run off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Justin Wrobleski, who was pitching on his 26th birthday, for the game’s only extra-base hit. The AL won for the 18th time in the 23 games and holds a 49-45-2 advantage overall.
“The pitching was just dominant today,” Bellinger said.
Singles by Soto in the fourth, Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs in the eighth and Otto Lopez of the Miami Marlins in the ninth were the only hits by the NL, which failed to advance a runner past first.
Parker Messick (Cleveland Guardians), Michael Wacha (Kansas City Royals), Joe Ryan (Minnesota Twins), Nick Martinez (Tampa Bay Rays), Cade Smith (Guardians), Drew Rasmussen (Rays), Jacob Latz (Texas Rangers), Louis Varland (Blue Jays), Aroldis Chapman (Boston Red Sox) and Bryan Baker (Rays) finished the 10th shutout in Midsummer Classic history and first since the AL’s 2-0 win in 2013 at New York’s Citi Field.
Some starting star power was missing for the NL, with Jacob Misoriowski (Milwaukee Brewers), Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers) all unavailable. Just six pitches reached 100 mph, the fewest in an MLB All-Star Game since 2021.
Bellinger and Rice both singled on up sinkers from Sánchez, who struggled through a 34-pitch inning that included three hits and two walks.
“It just took me a little time to soak it all in and enjoy it,” Sánchez said through a translator.
The contest took place less than two weeks after the United States celebrated its 250th birthday, and did so in a city that figured largely in the country’s founding.
Managers and starters entered through replica Liberty Bells in front of each dugout, walked to home plate and used a feathered quill to sign an oversized lineup card, as if they were Founding Fathers affixing names to the Declaration of Independence. MLB donated the card to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Dirt around the plate was surrounded by a baker’s dozen of stars, one each for the 13 Colonies that broke away from British rule.
After the fourth inning, a video was played of kids bicycling to a sandlot game with a narration by Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons. As footage was played of Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful” at Game 2 of the 2001 World Series, the kids biked onto the field and started interacting with the players on the field Tuesday night as fireworks went off above the ballpark.
“We were all one of those kids,” NL manager Dave Roberts of the Dodgers said. “Some of these kids might never get a chance to be on a major league field. So for them to have that opportunity to … have a conversation with an All-Star is something that they might never get that chance again, right?
Bellinger thought back to his youth.
“We’re all little kids at heart playing this game, even though it’s a challenging game,” he said. “We’re all still those little kids with big dreams.”
Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero was hit on the outside of his left hand by a 97.6 mph sinker from St. Louis Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien in the third inning and immediately left the game. The 23-year-old, fourth in the major leagues with 28 home runs this season, stayed down for a few moments before he popped up and ran straight into the clubhouse. X-rays were negative.
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, a 12-time selection who hadn’t played in the MLB All-Star Game since 2019 because of injuries, went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.