MLB All-Star Game: White Sox 3B Miguel Vargas caps AL's 4-0 win over NL with mammoth home run
White Sox 3B Miguel Vargas explains what his first-career All-Star game nod means
Miguel Vargas became the sixth White Sox third baseman to ever earn an All-Star Game nod. He explained what that accolade means to him.
PHILADELPHIA - Dylan Cease struck out the side in the first inning, combining with 10 relievers on a three-hitter in a show of pitching dominance that led the American League to a 4-0 win over the National League in Tuesday night's All-Star Game.
All-Star MVP Cody Bellinger hit a two-run single and Ben Rice followed with an RBI single in the first against Cristopher Sánchez of the host Philadelphia Phillies.
Miguel Vargas of the Chicago White Sox added an eighth-inning home run off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Justin Wrobleski, who was pitching on his 26th birthday, for the game's only extra-base hit. The AL won for the 18th time in 23 games and holds a 49-45-2 advantage overall.
Singles by Juan Soto in the fourth, Pete Crow-Armstrong in the eighth and Otto Lopez in the ninth were the only hits by the NL, which failed to advance a runner past first.
Pitchers combined for 27 strikeouts, 15 by AL hurlers.
Cease struck out Kyle Schwarber, Soto and CJ Abrams around a walk in the first inning. He became just the seventh pitcher to strike out three in an All-Star opening inning after Carl Hubbell (1934), Warren Spahn (1949), Jim Palmer (1977), Dave Stieb (1983), Pedro Martinez (1999) and Brad Penny (2006) — four of them Hall of Famers.
Parker Messick, Michael Wacha, Joe Ryan, Nick Martinez, Cade Smith, Drew Rasmussen, Jacob Latz, Louis Varland, Aroldis Chapman and Bryan Baker finished the first All-Star shutout since the AL’s 2-0 win in 2013 at New York’s Citi Field.
Some starting star power was missing, with Jacob Misoriowski, Paul Skenes and Shohei Ohtani all unavailable. Just six pitches reached 100 mph, the fewest in an All-Star Game since 2021.
Bellinger and Rice both singled on up sinkers from Sánchez, who struggled through a 34-pitch inning that included three hits and two walks.
"It just took me a little time to soak it all in and enjoy it," Sánchez said through a translator.
Mike Trout, a 12-time All-Star who hadn’t played in the game since 2019 because of injuries, went 0 for 3 with a strikeout.
Local perspective:
Vargas' moon shot went well over 430 feet.
It was also the third home run by a Chicago White Sox player in an MLB All-Star game, joining Frank Thomas in 1995 and Magglio Ordonez in 2001.
What they're saying:
"I don't have the words to describe that moment, it kind of felt like when I made my debut," Vargas told FOX Sports after the game. "It was an unbelievable experience, I have no words to describe it."