NEW YORK (AP) -Already in the middle of a special season, the Tampa Bay Rays left their mark on the All-Star game.
Sure, the Rays didn’t have seven representatives as did the Boston Red Sox. Nor did their players garner nearly as much attention as some of the more established stars at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. But when it counted on the field, Tampa Bay’s three rising stars contributed mightily to the American League’s 4-3, 15-inning win.
“It means so much to me,” said the game’s winning pitcher, Scott Kazmir. “Longo came up with a big hit, then you have Dioner (Navarro) come up with a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out.”
Rookie Evan Longoria, the final player voted onto the AL squad by an Internet vote, had a tying ground-rule double in the eighth inning, and even might have been called upon to pitch if the game had gone longer because Kazmir worked six innings Sunday and the AL was out of pitchers.
“Longoria is throwing batting practice. He’s got a good curveball,” Kazmir said.
Kazmir said that throwing to Navarro, his regular catcher, made it more comfortable to pitch in the wild atmosphere and pressure-filled situation.
Navarro threw out Cristian Guzman trying to steal to end the ninth after Mariano Rivera struck out Ryan Ludwick. He also had a hit in the 15th to help the AL win.
The Rays hope the All-Star game is not the season’s highlight for a team that has never had a winning record. Tampa Bay is 55-39, a half-game behind Boston in the AL East.
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TOP THIS: Dan Uggla set the most dubious record in a night of firsts at the longest All-Star game measured by time.
The Marlins second baseman became the first player to make three errors in the game’s history, booting two in the 10th and one in the 13th as the American League beat the National League 4-3 in 15 innings Tuesday night.
“My heart goes out to the young man. He’s such a good player, you know,” NL manager Clint Hurdle said. “Obviously, that’s not the kind of night you want to have in an All-Star game. You have that kind of night in the season, you get to play the next day.”
Uggla also helped contribute to a record 34 strikeouts combined for both teams by fanning three times. The old record was 30 in 1967.
The AL’s 4-3, 15-inning win lasted 4 hours, 50 minutes, more than an hour longer than the next closest game. The 1967 game (also 15 innings) at Anaheim Stadium went a breezy – by comparison – 3:41.
The AL, which has now won a record 12 straight, used the extra innings to steal its Midsummer Classic-best sixth base in the 13th inning, a swipe by J.D. Drew.
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MO TIME: The bullpen gates in left-center field opened, “Enter Sandman” blared over the Yankee Stadium loudspeakers and out came Mariano Rivera to an overwhelming ovation and a crackle of thousands of camera flashes.
With the score tied 3-all and a runner on first in the ninth inning, Boston manager Terry Francona did what he suggested he would, he called on the mainstay of the Yankees’ bullpen to do what he’s done so many times from this mound: help his team wriggle out of one more jam.
While it didn’t go quite to the script that many had hoped for – Rivera closing out the final All-Star game at the storied stadium – he did not disappoint with 1 2-3 scoreless innings in the AL’s 4-3, 15-inning victory.
After squelching the ninth-inning rally with a strikeout-caught stealing, Rivera worked the 10th and gave up two hits to put runners on first and third. He then got Dan Uggla to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“Definitely it was good,” Rivera said even though he wasn’t pitching in a save situation. “This one was top of the line.”
Rivera then stood on the top step and leaned on the railing of the AL – Yankees’ – dugout with Derek Jeter and watched the 11th inning. Alex Rodriguez, along with other starters already out of the game, had left not long after he was removed with one out in the fifth, dressed spiffily in a suit.
Rivera was warmed up by his manager and former catcher Joe Girardi, who also got Rivera’s Boston counterpart, Jonathan Paplebon, ready in the Yankees bullpen for his eighth-inning appearance. Paplebon gave up an unearned run to give the NL a 3-2 lead.
Rivera said that he knew he was going to pitch the ninth, even though he couldn’t tell the media.
“I knew a few days,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you that. (Francona) didn’t tell me specifically. My manager did.”
Rivera also caught one of four ceremonial first pitches from Yankees Hall-of-Famers, who were given the baseballs by George Steinbrenner, as part of a tribute to the frail 78-year-old team owner.
“It was priceless seeing our boss coming onto the field like that,” Rivera said.
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NO JOE: Dodgers manager Joe Torre was back in New York for the All-Star break to host his Safe at Home Foundation’s annual charity golf tournament and, along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, attend a news conference to open the 11th Margaret’s Place, a safehouse for student victims of domestic violence.
He did not attend the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, his baseball home from 1996-2007.
When asked by a reporter at the news conference how it would feel to be back at the Stadium, he quipped, “I couldn’t get a ticket.”
Instead, Torre, who won four World Series titles and was the AL manager at the All-Star game six times, was home with his family.
“I’m not going. I will watch it,” he said. “But if I was there, it would be strange to be on the other side of the field. That would be the odd perspective I’d have to look at it from.”
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WILLIE’S BACK: Former Mets manager Willie Randolph accepted Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s invitation to the All-Star game.
Randolph, a former All-Star second baseman and longtime coach with the Yankees, was fired last month after the Mets got off to an inconsistent start this season. He was selected to be a coach for the game during the final season for Yankee Stadium, then was replaced by Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella.
“George invited him to the All-Star game on the basis of his great friendship for him and he wanted him to take part in this momentous occasion,” Steinbrenner spokesman Howard Rubenstein said.
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AP Sports Writers Jay Cohen and Rachel Cohen, and Associated Press Writer Sara Kugler contributed to this report.
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