American League wins MLB All-Star Game, 3-0
New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera acknowledges the crowd after receiving a standing ovation during the eighth inning of American League’s 3-0 victory over the National League in the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday.
NEW YORK — Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect eighth inning in his final All-Star appearance, Jose Bautista, J.J. Hardy and Jason Kipnis drove in runs to back a night of pulsating pitching, and the American League beat the National League 3-0 Tuesday night to stop a three-year losing streak.
Ten pitchers combined a three-hitter and the 43-year-old Rivera, who is retiring at the end of the season, remained unscored on in nine All-Star innings. Rivera won the MVP award.
The only older pitcher to appear in an All-Star game was 47-year-old Satchel Paige.
PHOTO GALLERY: MLB All-Star Game
Rivera was left alone on the field for a 90-second standing ovation, waving his cap to the crowd and touching it to his heart as the other All-Stars watched from the dugout railing and applauded.
Bautista had a sacrifice fly in the fourth off Patrick Corbin that stopped the AL’s 17-inning scoreless streak. Hardy added a run-scoring grounder in the fifth against Cliff Lee and Kipnis hit an RBI double in the eighth off Craig Kimbrell.
Matt Harvey and Max Scherzer dazzled with pitching at the start. Harvey threw two scoreless innings, striking out three, and Scherzer retired the side in order in his only frame.
The Yankees got a scare when Harvey hit Robinson Cano on the side of his right knee in the first, forcing him from the game. An X-ray was negative, and Cano was diagnosed with a bruised quadriceps that did not seem major.
“A little tight. I didn’t want to aggravate it and just try to play through a situation,” Cano said. “Nothing bad.”
Before a record crowd of 45,186 at Citi Field, the New York Mets hosted baseball’s big summer event for the first time since 1964 at Shea Stadium.
Harvey was followed by Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who retired three in a row.
Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera, the first All-Star coming off a Triple Crown since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski at Houston’s Astrodome in 1968, doubled to the right-center gap in the fourth and took third when Chris Davis lined a single off the glove of leaping first baseman Joey Votto. Bautista followed with a fly to medium center.
Adam Jones doubled down the left-field line in the fifth — the AL’s third leadoff double — and advanced when Joe Mauer singled off the glove of diving shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and into left field.
Hardy hit a grounder to second baseman Brandon Phillips, who flipped to Tulowitzki for the force. Hardy then beat the delay as Jones scored for a 2-0 lead.
Speedy Mike Trout then hit a one-hopper to Tulowitzki, who flipped to second. Phillips caught the ball with his bare hand and threw to first for a double play.
The NL had won three in a row after losing the first seven games after Major League Baseball decided the winning league gets home-field advantage for the World Series.
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