The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.If you’re a fan of pitching, do I have an All-Star Game for you! If you’re into clean audio feeds, uhhh … get back to me. Plus: Evan Drellich tells us about the league’s proposal to ensure that if MLB players are allowed to play in the Olympics, they actually … do that.I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!All-Star Game: American League prevailsThe American League All-Star team knocked off that of the National League 4-0 in the 96th Midsummer Classic yesterday in Philadelphia.Now that is what I call parity.The first half of the MLB season saw just five AL teams with winning records, while the NL has 10 teams at .500 or higher. But that didn’t matter in last night’s game. A few highlights from it:
Of all the unexpected outcomes, the AL scoring three runs in the first inning off Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez ranks right up there. Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice did all the damage — Bellinger won MVP for his two RBIs — and that was all the scoring until the eighth inning, because …
The pitching was lights-out. After Toronto starter Dylan Cease struck out the side — aka retired three batters in an inning by strikeouts — in the first, AL pitchers continued to dominate. The NL didn’t get a hit until a Juan Soto single in the fourth inning, and 11 pitchers combined to rack up 15 strikeouts (and only three hits and two walks). On the NL side, the eight pitchers after Sánchez struck out 10 (for a total of 12), and allowed just four more hits and no walks for the rest of the night. One of those hits was …
