ATLANTA — Kyle Schwarber, a man 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 four years later.
But on Tuesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies slugger made home run history on the All-Star stage, pulverizing three pitches in three swings in the first swing-off to decide an All-Star Game, giving the National League a 4-3 home run edge to beat the American League at Truist Park after the score was tied at 6-6 through nine innings.
The performance was enough for Schwarber to win MVP honors in a game that began and ended with historic firsts.
This year's exhibition was the first game to feature the automated ball-strike system at the major league level outside of spring training, an expected precursor to Major League Baseball implementing the arrangement for all games beginning next season.
The rules 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.
In the end, four pitches were challenged. The historic first was an 0-2 changeup that American League starter Tarik 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 didn't agree, so they 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
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