Major League Baseball

Big bats mostly silenced in All-Star game

Published Jul. 14, 2010 6:11 a.m. ET

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The biggest hitters in the All-Star game were the biggest zeros.

Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Adrian Gonzalez, Vladimir Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki couldn't muster any offense Tuesday night, when the National League snapped its 13-year winless stretch with a 3-1 win over the American League.

The AL scattered just six hits - its lowest total since having the same amount in 1999.

Alex Rodriguez never even got into his 13th Midsummer Classic.

''I definitely was looking for him,'' NL manager Charlie Manuel said. ''He's one of the better hitters in the game, if not the best. That was going through my mind.''

AL manager Joe Girardi, who manages A-Rod with the Yankees, considered using Rodriguez as a pinch-runner if the tying run had gotten on base. But that didn't happen.

''I sat there for about three hours, but I was loose and I was ready to go in the eighth and ninth,'' Rodriguez said. ''We had a couple of situations where I could have gone in, but it was up to him on which situation to put me in. But it's not my first.''

Of course, both sides' pitching had a lot to do with the lack of offense, beginning with starters David Price of the AL and Ubaldo Jimenez of the NL. They each pitched the first two innings, helping account for the game being scoreless through four innings for just the eighth time.

The lone bright spots among the big names were Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria, Boston's David Ortiz and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.

Longoria came in hitting .300 and doubled in his first at-bat. He walked his other time up. Jeter walked in the first inning and singled in the sixth. Ortiz, who won Monday's Home Run Derby, singled in the ninth only to get thrown out at second base with the AL trying to mount a late rally.

''We try to play our best,'' Ortiz said. ''But when you see guys who are used to pitching six, seven innings and are here to pitch one inning, you're going to see the best of those guys.''

Down went Pujols, Howard, Jeter, Guerrero, Ortiz and Suzuki - strikeout victims all. Suzuki came in with five hits in his previous 11 All-Star at-bats, but he whiffed against Florida's Josh Johnson - just his third strikeout in 28 plate appearances.

Hanley Ramirez, another .300 hitter in the NL, was hitless in three at-bats.

''It was definitely a pitchers' game,'' Howard said. ''It's an All-Star game. Everybody here is good. You're facing an ace from just about every team.''

Jeter, Guerrero and Suzuki were the veteran bats in the AL's lineup. They were a combined 22 for 63 coming into the game, all having hit a home run in previous years.

Guerrero never found his comfort level in his old ballpark despite being loudly cheered by the Angel Stadium crowd throughout the evening.

Pujols, Howard and Gonzalez were all hitless in two at-bats each for the NL.

''It felt like a Padre win,'' said Gonzalez, who plays for NL West-leading San Diego. ''Stick around, stick around and get that one big hit. You got great pitching on both sides.''

The NL won on MVP Brian McCann's bases-loaded, three-run double in the seventh. Robinson Cano's sacrifice fly scored the AL's lone run in the fifth.

There were no home runs in the 81st All-Star game for the second straight year and just the third time since 1999.

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