National League Finally Beats American League in All-Star Game

It took them 13 years, but the National League finally got it done.

For the first time since 1996, the National League beat the American League in the All-Star Game.

Behind some timely hitting from Atlanta Braves catcher Brian McCann, the NL beat the AL 3-1 to clinch home-field advantage in the World Series.

What was interesting about this game was that if you watched it up until the bottom of the fifth, you would have thought the AL was going to win again.

In the top of the fifth, with David Wright on first, he went to steal second and Joe Mauer air mailed his throw into center field. However, Wright didn’t know where the ball was and didn’t advance to third.

Two batters later, Andre Ethier lined a single to right, but the ball was hit so hard that Wright couldn’t score from second.

So instead of having a run, the NL had first and third with one out. Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander was able to get out of the inning by retiring Corey Hart and Yadier Molina.

In the bottom of the frame, with Evan Longoria on first, Mauer hit a slow roller back to the mound off of Hong-Chih Kuo that Kuo threw into right field. It might have been the worst throw in All-Star Game history.

The AL ended up taking the lead 1-0 and you kind of thought this is why the NL hasn’t won in 13 years. The team didn't take advantage of a bad throw in the top of the frame, but the AL comes right back and takes advantage of a miscue.

Then, things changed for the NL in the top of the seventh.

Scott Rolen and Matt Holliday singled off of Phil Hughes to give the NL runners on first and third with one out. AL manager Joe Girardi removed Hughes to bring in Matt Thornton to face Ethier, Marlon Byrd, and potentially McCann.

Thornton retired Chris Young, who was pinch hitting for Ethier, but then he made a mistake to Byrd, which cost him in the long run. Thornton had Byrd 0-2 and ended up walking him.

That just can’t happen.

Now with the bases loaded and two outs, McCann ripped a double to right that cleared the bases. And just like that, the NL is all of a sudden leading up 3-1.

Of course the other story of this game occurred in bottom of the ninth inning.

The story being that Girardi failed to use Alex Rodriguez to pinch hit. Girardi had two opportunities to use his Yankees third baseman and chose not to.

If you are going to save a guy for one spot like Mike Scioscia used Hank Blalock for one spot in 2003, then use him. A-Rod could have pinch hit for Adrian Beltre (bad hamstring) and for Ian Kinsler, then could have inserted Ty Wigginton back in the game to play second.

If Girardi wasn’t going to use A-Rod as a pinch-hitter, then he should have used him as a pinch-runner for David Ortiz.

Ortiz was thrown out at second on the defensive play of the game by Byrd, who was playing right field.

It was an odd decision that cost the AL home-field advantage in the World Series.

Due to his big double, McCann was named the game's MVP.

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