American League Wins: Francona Can Now Exhale Following All-Star Game Drama

Putting aside the traditional pomp and circumstance of the mid-summer classic, Terry Francona found himself in the unenviable position of having to manage the American League pitching staff through a 15 inning marathon which lasted four hours and 54 minutes.

“You know, you wait a lot of your life to do something like this," Francona said. "And in the last two hours, it wasn't a whole lot of fun. I was very nervous. I actually was more nervous before the game than I ever thought I would be. You know, but an excitable, you know, nervousness. It was fun to be part of something so special. And then later on, [I] started to have panic set in."

Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir, having thrown 104 pitches on Sunday, was an absolute last resort for Francona in the 15th but Baltimore closer George Sherrill had already pitched two-and-a-third innings, surpassing his longest outing of the of the season. 

“I hadn’t planned on bringing him in but nobody was left to use,” Francona said of his decision to call on Kazmir.

Kazmir kept the National League from scoring in the top of the 15^th and Michael Young hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to give the American League a 4-3 victory over the National League in the 79^th All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Francona, and presumably the entire Tampa Bay organization, breathed a collective sigh of relief when Young connected for the sacrifice, scoring Justin Morneau from third.

"I mean, we got to the point where [Tigers manager] Jimmy Leyland saw Kazmir, came down to the dugout just to check, and I asked him if he could pitch," Francona said. "It wasn't a real fun situation. I mean, that's just it was you try so hard to win and get everybody in. I thought we excelled at that, because we used everybody. We did a great job of using everybody."

Following the infamous 2002 All-Star Game which will forever be remembered for ending in a tie, Commissioner Bud Selig vowed to make future All-Star Games mean something by awarding home-field advantage during the World Series to whichever league wins the mid-summer classic. 

Even with the bullpens emptied, Francona and National League manager Clint Hurdle knew the game couldn’t end in a tie.

“We can sit here and think of the what ifs, but the what ifs didn’t matter,” Selig said after the game.  “Everybody knew the ground rules.  Everyone went in knowing and we’ve given them everything they’ve asked for.  We’re up to 32 players.  And, look, it all worked, and in the end we didn’t have to resort to [anything].  There’s no sense in playing a lot of what ifs, because everybody understood the ground rules.  We were playing the game to its completion.”

Kazmir’s teammate Evan Longoria and eventual All-Star Game MVP J.D. Drew volunteered to take the mound if necessary.

“Drew might have been a little more of an MVP if we went a couple more innings,” Francona said.  “He might have pitched.  He’s been begging me a long time to pitch, and we almost got close.”

“I’ve given him a hard time for the couple years that I played for him,” confessed Drew.  “If he ever runs out of pitchers, just give me a holler out here.  I would have thrown some stuff up there.  I got a little sneaky stuff here and there.  I don’t know if I would have got anybody out, but …”

In the 15^th, Morneau hit a bloop single off Brad Lidge and Dioner Navarro followed with another base hit, leaving runners at first and second.  A walk to Drew loaded the bases and Young popped a sacrifice fly to right field to score Morneau for the victory.

“If I had popped up to second, Morneau would have probably tried to score,” Young said.  “I knew he was going to go but I was just hoping it was deep enough.”

If the American League’s offense had sputtered in the 15^th and failed to score the winning run no one is sure as to what would have happened. 

“I’m not going to speak about what ifs because they make no sense but a tie will not happen again,” Selig said.  “We’ve added players to the roster.  We’ve done things.  There have been a lot of questions about all that, but I really believe that the things that we did helped.  I mean, if we hadn’t done them, tonight there’s no question there would have been a problem.  But we did.  And, look, it worked out.

“We were going to play the game to the end.  We were playing to the end.”

(Patrick Gordon is a freelance editor / sportswriter based in Philadelphia.  He currently manages the Philadelphia Baseball Review.)