Riley O'Brien endured a scary moment when his tailing sinker drilled Junior Caminero in the left hand, but the Rays' star avoided serious injury. Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker struck out in his one at bat, while Ivan Herrera grounded out in the AL's 4-0 defeat of the NL.
A full-time big-league pitcher and an All-Star for the first time at 31 years old, Cardinals’ closer Riley O’Brien had one of the best feel-good stories among all the players competing in Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic from Philadelphia.
Fortunately for O’Brien, his one inning of work in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game won’t be remembered for an unfortunate incident involving Rays rising star Junior Caminero.
With his adrenaline clearly pumping, O’Brien looked on in horror when his 97.6 mph sinker tailed up and in on Caminero and struck the star slugger on the bottom of his left hand.
Caminero went down in pain and stayed down for a matter of minutes before leaving the game to get X-rays on his hand. Those X-rays came back negative for any bone breaks, per Fox Sports reporter Ken Rosenthal.
O’Brien, who came into the night having saved 24 of 28 games this season for the Cardinals, was otherwise brilliant in his one inning of work of the American League’s 4-0 win over the NL.
The AL won the All-Star Game for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons. Cody Bellinger won MVP honors for his two RBI in the first inning.
O’Brien, who surrendered a jam-shot single to Shea Langeliers to lead off the third inning, got out of the two-on, nobody-out jam by getting Royals’ star Bobby Witt to ground into a force out and Cody Bellinger to fly out. O’Brien then showed off why he has evolved into being one the game’s best closers by showing Yankees young star Ben Rice two sweepers and a 97.6 mph four-seam fastball before using a tailing changeup to get the swing and miss to end the inning.
Walker, Herrera fail to register a hit for NL
A night after electrifying the sports world with a performance for the ages to win MLB’s Home Run Derby and the $1 million prize money, surging superstar Jordan Walker got most of the night off before entering the game defensively in the eighth inning. Walker, who homered on his final six swings of Monday’s home run showcase, whiffed on a 98 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman in his only at bat of the game.
Ivan Herrera, a late All-Star replacement for the injured Shohei Ohtani, pinch-hit in the eighth inning and grounded into a force out after Cubs’ star Pete Crow-Armstrong registered the NL’s second hit of the night. The NL finished with just three hits and were shut out for the first time in 13 years.
The American League got a two-run single from Cody Bellinger and an RBI hit from Rice in the first inning to build a 3-0 lead. Surprising White Sox slugger Miguel Vargas blasted a 433-foot homer off Justin Wrobleski in the eighth inning.
The fourth Cardinals representative, manager Oliver Marmol, worked with Dodgers skipper, Dave Roberts, to get as many players into the game as possible. Roberts and Marmol had to make Phillies fans happy by getting all seven of their players into the All-Star classic.
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