Chipper Jones slugged an All-Star record 3 home runs to take home unanimous MVP honors in leading the Suburban All-Stars to a 12-6 triumph over their City Division rivals at the Santa Fe Trailer Park. All of the runs in the game scored on homers as ten long balls were hit altogether—7 by the suburbanites and 3 by the city dwellers. Pedro Martinez started and pitched three scoreless innings for the win.
Santa
Fe Trailer Bitch Jon Lieber started for the City, but apparently had the jitters
in front of the home-town capacity crowd of 56,789. After retiring Nomar
Garciaparra to start the game, Lieber surrendered the first of Jones’ dingers
and the ‘burbs were on the board. Manny Ramirez then followed with a double,
and Barry Bonds was intentionally walked to get to the right-handed Mike
Piazza. The strategy back-fired, though, as Piazza deposited a Lieber pitch
over the wall for a 3-run shot. Jose Vidro then followed that up with a double.
After Jeff Bagwell was retired on a deep fly ball, Steve Finley got in on the
home run derby. Mike Sweeney then mercifully grounded out to end the inning,
but not before the Subbies had batted around and put the City Division in a 6-0
hole.
Martinez
struck out the first two batters he faced and the City Division went down 1-2-3
in their half of the first. So the top of the Suburban order quickly came up to
bat again. Lieber was given a chance to redeem himself, but this time
Garciaparra cleared the fences, and Lieber departed having surrendered 4 homers
in an inning plus of work. It was the second time Garciaparra had homered in
the All-Star game in as many years.
Al
Leiter came in to turn Chipper Jones around to the right side, but Jones lit
him up to go back to back with Nomar. The home runs from both sides of the
plate for Jones was another All-Star first. After Ramirez and Bonds struck out,
Piazza singled for his second hit, but was stranded when Jose Vidro lined out.
Pedro
Martinez worked another perfect inning and at the end of 2, the Suburbs had a
commanding 8-0 lead.
Tim
Hudson came on to pitch the top of the 3rd and he sat down the bottom three
batters in the Suburban lineup in order. Javy Lopez then led off the bottom of
the 3rd with a double, but he would advance no further as Martinez got the next
three batters. Martinez finished with 5 strikeouts in 3 innings, facing one
over the minimum.
Tim
Hudson continued on to the 4th, but his success did not. Garciaparra reached on
a lead-off single, and the crowd went crazy as Chipper came up again. Jones did
not disappoint them as he made it three home runs off of three different
pitchers in three trips to the plate. After a walk to Manny Ramirez, Mike
Hampton then came in to face Barry Bonds. Bonds struck out and Piazza then
grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Bonds, leading the league with 33 HR’s and
87 RBI, was the only disappointing spot for the Suburbs all day. He went 0-4
with 3 K’s.
Kevin
Brown then relieved Martinez for the bottom of the 4th. The City guys were
happy to see Pedro go. After a Bernie Williams strike out, Vladimir Guerrero
was hit by a pitch and home-town hero Todd Helton got the City Division on the
board with a 2-run shot. Pinch-hitter Shannon Stewart walked and Dave Justice
singled to send him to third with one out, but the rally ended there as Javy
Lopez struck out and Brad Fullmer grounded out to end the inning with the City
down 10-2.
Greg
Maddux stopped the bleeding by working a scoreless 5th and 6th for the City,
yielding only a walk to Steve Finley and a double to Jason Kendall. But Mike
Mussina and Randy Johnson were equal to the task with Mussina allowing just one
baserunner in the 5th and Johnson working a perfect 6th. Chipper Jones did come
to bat one more time in the top of the 6th, but only managed a routine fly ball
off of Maddux. The MVP finished the day 3 for 4 with 4 RBI.
In
the top of the 7th, Jeff Kent walked and Will Clark then homered off of Kevin
Tapani to extended the Suburban lead to 12-2. The City gained some ground in
their half of the inning. After back to back walks to Scott Rolen and Edgardo
Alfonzo, Sammy Sosa homered off of Kris Benson. Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot
in the bottom of the 8th to close out the scoring. The 18 combined runs equaled
the number of runs scored in the last four All-Star games combined.
In
another masterful managerial job, all 60 players made it into the game. Every
batter except for Fernando Vina got at least one plate appearance, and thanks
to the large difference in the scoring (meaning no chance for extra innings),
every pitcher recorded at least one out. Every team had at least 2
representatives, with Wrigly leading the way with seven, although one of those
was the recently acquired Steve Finley.