PHILADELPHIA — In his second-ever Major League Baseball All-Star Game appearance in as many years, former Stanislaus State standout and current Minnesota Twins ace Joe Ryan struck out a pair of batters to contribute to one of the best combined pitching efforts in the history of the Midsummer Classic.
Ryan, one of the premier starters in all of baseball, was the third pitcher out of the bullpen for the American League on Tuesday at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia. The right-hander gave up one of the National League’s three total hits before retiring the side in the fourth inning of the 4-0 victory, the 10th All-Star shutout in history and first since the AL’s 2-0 win in 2013 at New York’s Citi Field.
Mets star Juan Soto singled up the middle to welcome Ryan to the All-Star stage, but the former Warrior responded with back-to-back strikeouts of Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers and CJ Abrams of the Washington Nationals. He forced Max Muncy of the Dodgers to pop out to the shortstop to end the frame.
Ryan joined Michael Wacha of the Kansas City Royals and Cade Smith of the Cleveland Guardians as pitchers with multiple strikeouts. Ryan and the American League combined for 15 strikeouts, one shy for a team in a nine-inning All-Star Game (The AL had 16 in the 2019 classic)
Pitchers between both squads struck out 27 batters, a record for a nine-inning All-Star Game.
Each of the three hits allowed by American League pitchers on Tuesday were singles, and it tied for the second-fewest hits in an All-Star Game, joining the 2013 AL team. The NL did not even advance a runner past first base in this year’s exhibition.
Dylan Cease of the Toronto Blue Jays earned the starting nod for the AL, and struck out the side in the first inning, Cease fanned Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto and CJ Abrams around a walk in the first inning, when he got six misses among 15 swings. 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.
“That’s the game now. Guys’ stuff is unbelievable,” said AL manager John Schneider, also Cease’s skipper in Toronto. “I think the bullpen guys kind fed off of it. They were all excited coming off the mound. It speaks volumes to how good the pitching is, for sure.”
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.
“The pitching was just dominant today,” Bellinger said.
Cease was relieved by Parker Messick, who was followed by Wacha, Ryan, Nick Martinez, Smith, Drew Rasmussen, Jacob Latz, Louis Varland, Aroldis Chapman and Bryan Baker to shut the door on the NL.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
