2024 All-Star Game: Solid showing by Crochet and Imanaga

Chicago White Sox’s Garrett Crochet and Chicago Cubs’ Shota Imanaga made their All-Star Game debuts Tuesday night in Texas. They both took turns pitching one after the other in the fourth inning with excellent performances.

Crochet got Jurickson Profar to hit into a grounder and struck out Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernandez with a 98-mph throw. Aaron Bohm singled against Crochet in the next at-bat, but the South Sider induced Christian Yelich to hit into a grounder to get the job done. Crochet finished with a scoreless inning and a strikeout on his record.

Shota Imanaga followed up Crochet from the other side of the All-Star Game. The Japanese also achieved a scoreless 1-2-3 inning.

The Cubs All-Star got Marcus Semien to hit for one out. Imanaga the retired Adley Rutschman on a sweeper to the lower right corner. Finally, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a grounder to second base.

Imanaga hilariously changed his entrance song from “Chelsea Dagger” – a Chicago classic known as the Blackhawks’ anthem – to “Be Like Mike,” a tribute to Michael Jordan and his famous Gatorade commercial.

The American League once again dominated the MLB All-Star Game, winning 5-3 over the National League thanks to a two-run homer in the fifth inning by Jarren Duran, who was named Most Valuable Player. The Boston Red Sox outfielder, making his first All-Star appearance as a reserve, drove in the winning run to give the American League a 48-44 lead over the National League after 94 editions of the mid-season classic.

Dominican Adrián Beltré, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday 21, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Rangers Stadium, joined by Rangers legends Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins.

Japan’s Shohei Ohtani opened the scoring for the National League in the third inning with a three-run home run off the Red Sox’ Tanner Houck. The Dodgers’ outfielder drove home Curacao’s Jurickson Profar and Dominican Ketel Marte to give his team a 3-0 lead.

The American League responded with three runs in the bottom of the third, the first two driven in by Dominican Juan Soto with a double that brought Marcus Semien and Steven Kwan to the plate. Soto then scored on David Fry’s single off Logan Webb to tie the game at 3-3.

The score remained tied until the bottom of the fifth when Duran homered with two outs off Hunter Greene to give the American League the decisive lead in the All-Star Game.