ALL-STAR GAME : Expos’ Alou Lets NL End Six-Year Skid : Baseball: His double in the 10th inning provides an 8-7 victory over the AL. McGriff hits a crucial home run.

The story of the 65th All-Star game Tuesday night is the story of the season:

Not even baseball’s best pitchers could extinguish the hit parade that has distinguished the first half.

The American League outhit the National, 15-12, but saw its six-game winning streak end, 8-7, in 10 innings.

A two-run, pinch-hit homer by Fred McGriff against major league save leader Lee Smith wiped out a 7-5 American lead with one out in the ninth, and the National won it against Jason Bere of the Chicago White Sox in the 10th on a leadoff single by Tony Gwynn and a double by Moises Alou of the Montreal Expos.

The outcome wasn’t a surprise once the game entered extra innings for the first time since 1987. The National has won all nine All-Star games to go past nine.

McGriff, the Atlanta Braves’ first baseman, got only one at-bat but won the most valuable player trophy, absolving manager Jim Fregosi of the criticism he received for selecting McGriff over the right-handed-hitting Andres Galarraga as a backup first baseman.

“I wanted to win and I was thinking about a left-handed hitter coming off the bench,” Fregosi, the Philadelphia Phillies’ manager, said of the McGriff selection. “The problem was, I kept waiting for a spot to use him and almost ran out of time.”

Marquis Grissom walked to open the ninth. Craig Biggio grounded into a force play, but McGriff, batting for Randy Myers, connected to left center on a 1-and-2 fastball as a partisan National League crowd of 59,568 at Three Rivers Stadium, the largest baseball crowd in Pittsburgh history, thundered approval.

McGriff, who enters the second half with 23 homers, said this one ranked with a playoff homer against the Phillies last year as a career highlight.

“I’m building a new home in Tampa, and the trophy will go in a prominent spot,” he said.

“Smith had thrown two fastballs by me and I told myself that I had to be a little quicker. I expected him to throw me another, and he did.”

Fregosi used 26 of his 28 players, saving pitcher Bret Saberhagen and outfielder Jeff Conine. McGriff was thinking he might not get a chance.

“I knew Jimmy was trying to save me just in case, but I was starting to sweat. We were behind, it was tough to make changes, and it was getting late. I feel good that I was able to come through for him because he took some heat for picking me.”

In a game of 27 hits, the National produced the only homers, with Grissom, selected by Fregosi to replace sidelined center fielder Lenny Dykstra, connecting for a solo shot against Randy Johnson in the sixth.

“Everybody has been talking about the power in the American League lineup, and guys like (Ken) Griffey and (Frank) Thomas are definitely putting up awesome numbers, but we can hold our own,” McGriff said of the National League. “We don’t have to take a back seat to anyone.”

On another tough night for the pitchers, each side used eight; only Wilson Alvarez of the AL and Ken Hill of the NL worked hitless innings.

Only Ricky Bones remained in the American bullpen when Bere, the 23-year-old White Sox sophomore, yielded the leadoff single to Gwynn, who had earlier doubled in two runs against David Cone, in the 10th. Alou then hit his double to left center.

A flawless relay from Albert Belle to Cal Ripken Jr. to Ivan Rodriguez arrived at the plate ahead of Gwynn, but Rodriguez, a Gold Glove catcher who some in baseball consider overrated, made little attempt to block the plate and was slow in applying the tag as Gwynn slid in.

Said Gwynn: “If that had been (former Dodger) Mike Scioscia doing the catching, I’d have been dead meat.”

Rodriguez, who became the first catcher since Johnny Bench in 1975 to catch an entire All-Star game, said he believed he made the tag in time and was prevented from blocking the plate “because the throw short-hopped me and kind of (momentarily) knocked me back from the plate.”

The AL, which got a double and single from Griffey and two singles from Thomas, scored three runs against Doug Drabek in the sixth--a throwing error by Matt Williams was critical--and three against Danny Jackson in the seventh. Fregosi had brought in his Phillie left-hander to face left-handed hitting Scott Cooper, Ken Lofton and Will Clark, only to see all hit safely.

A Gregg Jefferies double led to an NL run against Jimmy Key in the first and Cone yielded three more in the third, including an RBI single by Mike Piazza. But Grissom’s homer in the sixth was the only other National run until McGriff homered. Among the NL All-Stars, only Gwynn and Ozzie Smith, who at 39 made the defensive play of the game in the seventh, were on the team that last defeated the AL.