CINCINNATI — Mike Trout flashed the skill that puts him at the front of baseball’s new generation, just moments after four of the all-time greats had just walked off the field.
Trout became the first player in 38 years to homer leading off an All-Star game, Prince Fielder drove in two runs to show this era is not just about the kids, and American League arms outdueled their more accomplished National League rivals.
A new-look All-Star Game finished with the same old result. The AL beat the NL 6-3 Tuesday night and will open the World Series at home for the 10th time in 13 years.
In an age of dominant pitching, Felix Hernandez, winner David Price, Zach Britton, Dellin Betances and Wade Davis took scoreless turns in the AL’s third win a row.
A season after the retirement of Derek Jeter dropped the curtain on the turn-of-century greats, the 23-year-old Trout was among six starting position players under 25 — the most since 1965. He was the MVP of last year’s game in Minneapolis, when he hit a tiebreaking triple and later a go-ahead double.
This time Trout sent Zack Greinke’s fourth pitch, a 94-mph fastball on the outer half of the plate, over the wall in right next to the visiting bullpen for an opposite-field homer.
Fielder and Lorenzo Cain had run-scoring hits in the fifth against NL MVP Clayton Kershaw that put the AL ahead 3-1.
Manny Machado, at 23 another of the sport’s fresh faces, hit a double off the right field wall against Francisco Rodriguez in the seventh and scored on Fielder’s sacrifice fly. And Brian Dozier, the last player added to the game as an injury replacement, hit a solo home run off Mark Melancon in the eighth.
Thumbnail photo via Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports Images
