Schwarber, NL win All-Star Game in 1st tiebreak HR swing-off

ATLANTA — The 2025 MLB All-Star Game featured the two best pitchers in the world on the mound to start for their respective leagues and the two best position players in the opposing lineups. It included the first automatic ball-strike system challenges in All-Star Game history, a rousing six-run comeback, a memorable appearance for a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and a beautiful tribute to the late Hank Aaron just miles from where he surpassed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list.

But the exhibition, a remarkable show played at Truist Park on a muggy Tuesday night, will be remembered for how it ended.

When it was over, nearly four hours after the first pitch, the National League outlasted the American League behind Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber in an unprecedented Home Run Derby-style swing-off, with a 4-3 homer edge after the score was tied at 6-6 through nine innings.

Schwarber pulverized three home runs on three swings in the swing-off after going 0-for-2 with a walk during the nine innings, becoming the first position player to win All-Star Game MVP without recording a hit in the game.

Officially, the result, just the Senior Circuit’s second victory in the past 12 matchups, didn’t have a winning or losing pitcher of record. Unofficially, it was one of the most enthralling endings to any marquee baseball game, exhibition or not.

“It’s like wiffle ball in the backyard,” AL manager Aaron Boone said.

The tiebreaker, a baseball version of a hockey shootout, was established in 2022. On Monday, both managers — Boone and the NL’s Dave Roberts — were required to submit their list of participants and alternates to MLB should the game need the swing-off after nine innings. Knowing starters usually shower and leave the ballpark well before the end of the game, the managers opted for reserves.

The exercise again appeared to be unnecessary once the NL took a 6-0 lead — fueled by New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso‘s three-run home run — into the seventh inning. But the AL scored four runs in the seventh and tied the game when down to its last out in the ninth to send the 95th All-Star Game to its first swing-off.

“Dave asked yesterday, ‘If there’s a tie, would you do it?'” said Schwarber, the only member of the Phillies who participated in this year’s All-Star festivities. “I said, ‘Absolutely,’ not thinking that we were going to end up in a tie when you say yes. And then as the game’s going, you’re looking at the score, you’re not really thinking the game’s going to end in a tie.”

But even that process prompted brief confusion. Roberts originally selected Schwarber, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez and Alonso, a two-time Home Run Derby champion. But Suarez, who was hit on his left hand by a pitch in the eighth inning, was scratched after being announced and replaced by Miami Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers.

Boone countered with Athletics designated hitter Brent Rooker, Seattle Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena and Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda.

Los Angeles Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel threw for the NL. New York Yankees first-base coach Travis Chapman assumed the pressure-packed duty for the AL.

Finally, the rules: Each player was granted three swings and an unlimited amount of pitches to take them.

Rooker, the only participant to also take part in Monday’s Home Run Derby, led off with two homers. Stowers followed with one. Arozarena then extended the AL’s lead to 3-1, setting the stage for Schwarber.

Schwarber, a man seemingly built to smash baseballs over the wall, has never won a Home Run Derby. He lost in the finals in 2018 and failed to advance out of the first round in 2022; he hasn’t entered another one since. On Tuesday, however, he did not falter.

The three-time All-Star, after building some drama with a delayed emergence from the NL dugout, crushed three home runs, drawing louder and louder reactions with each one. The first was a 428-foot laser that traveled 107 mph to straightaway center. Next, he cracked a 461-foot, 109 mph moon shot to right field. He finished the spree with a 382-foot dinger, dropping down to one knee as the ball soared into the right-field seats and eliciting a rambunctious reaction from his temporary teammates.

“I think the first swing was kind of the big one,” Schwarber said. “I was just really trying to hit a line drive versus trying to hit the home run. Usually, that tends to work out, especially in games.”

The pressure shifted to Aranda. Needing one homer to tie, Aranda lifted a fly ball to the warning track before clanking a ball off the top of the brick wall in right field. His last swing produced a weak fly ball to left field, giving the NL the win at eight minutes to midnight.

“First time in history we got to do this,” Roberts said, “and I think it played pretty well tonight.”

By then, the early talk of the night was old news.

This year’s exhibition was the first game at the major league level outside of spring training to feature the automated ball-strike system, an expected precursor to Major League Baseball implementing the arrangement for all games beginning next season.

The rules on Tuesday were the same as the ABS challenge rules introduced during spring training. Each team received two challenges for the game. Only the pitcher, catcher or batter could request a challenge, and the request needed to be immediate without help from the dugout or other players on the field.

Five pitches were challenged Tuesday. The first was an 0-2 changeup that AL starter Pull Skubal threw to San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado that plate umpire Dan Iassogna called a ball in the first inning. Skubal and his catcher, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, didn’t agree and so challenged the pitch to make history. The call was overturned, ending Machado’s at-bat with a strikeout.

“I wasn’t even going to use them,” Skubal said. “But I felt like that was a strike, and you want that in an 0-2 count.”

Skubal became the first Detroit Tigers pitcher to start an All-Star Game since Max Scherzer in 2013. Opposite him was the other Cy Young favorite.

A year after starting the All-Star Game for the NL with 11 career outings on his résumé, Pittsburgh Pirates sensation Paul scenes received the nod again to become the 10th pitcher to start consecutive All-Star Games and the first to accomplish the feat in his first two seasons. Last year, in Texas, Skenes walked one batter in his scoreless inning, a blip that he said “pissed me off” and pushed him to attack hitters for his All-Star Game encore.

“I was throwing every pitch as hard as I could,” Skenes said, “hoping that it landed in the strike zone.”

The result: two strikeouts on 100 mph fastballs to Tigers teammates Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene to open the contest. Skenes admittedly reached back seeking to strike out the side, but Yankees slugger Aaron Judge grounded out on another 100 mph pitch to conclude Skenes’ night.

“That’s what the All-Star Game’s for,” Skenes said. “Every hitter’s trying to hit a home run. We’re trying to strike everybody out.”

In a fitting transition, 11-time All-Star Clayton Kershaw relieved Skenes, 14 years his junior, in the second inning.

Raleigh, Tuesday’s Home Run Derby champion, welcomed the Dodgers’ Kershaw with a 101.9 mph line drive that Chicago Cubs left-fielder Kyle Tucker snagged with a sliding catch. Kershaw then struck out the Toronto Blue Jays‘ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking at an 87 mph slider on his sixth pitch, prompting Roberts to emerge from the NL dugout to take the ball from Kershaw and end what could have been the final All-Star Game appearance of his Hall of Fame career.

A legend selection for the game by commissioner Rob Manfred, Kershaw delivered a pregame speech in the NL clubhouse.

“We have the best All-Star Game of any sport,” said Kershaw, who on July 2 became the 20th pitcher to record 3,000 career strikeouts. “We do have the best product. So to be here, to realize your responsibility in the sport, is important. And we have Shohei here. We have Aaron Judge here. We have all these guys that represent the game really, really well so we get to showcase that and be part of that is important. I just said I was super honored to be a part of it.”

In the end, Kershaw was part of something never seen before.