The American League and The National League took the field at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the ninety-sixth All-Star Game. This is the fifth All-Star Game in history hosted in Philadelphia, and the first since 1996.
Speaking of the number five, the Atlanta Braves had five representatives on the NL All-Star roster. Drake Baldwin and Ozzie Albies were starters, while Matt Olson was a reserve. On the pitching side of things, Chris Sale and Raisel Iglesias were active for the game.
Small little side nugget, Braves legend Hank Aaron holds a tied for the record for most All-Star Games played with twenty-four. It should be noted that for part of his career they played two All-Star Games per year, but it is still a fun Braves stat.
The NL struggled mightily with their bats against the elite AL pitching. Other than the first inning the NL pitching did great as well. Let’s break down what each Braves player was able to accomplish in the game.
Albies, who is having his best season since 2023, was elected as a starter. It is his first All-Star appearance since the aforementioned 2023 season. He hit sixth in the lineup and the first pitcher he saw was Parker Messick in the second inning. Albies swung on the second pitch he saw, which was an outside change up, and grounded out sharply to Bobby Witt Jr. at SS.
In his second at-bat he faced Nick Martinez in the fifth in to a very similar result. This time he swung on a fastball right down the middle on the third pitch from the left side of the plate and grounded out to first baseman Willson Contreras. Albies was replaced in the sixth inning, but he was able to also pick up an assist from second.
Drake Baldwin was also a starter and hit ninth in the order. The first pitcher he faced was Michael Wacha in the third inning. Unfortunately, he struck out looking on the third pitch he saw. Because he was so late in the lineup, that was the only at-bat he got. He was replaced in the fourth inning by former Brave William Contreras.
Baldwin did have a positive outlook on his first all-star experience:
Olson made his fourth career All-Star appearance and third as a Brave. He was a reserve so he did not get into the game until the replaced former Brave Freddie Freeman at first base in the top of the fifth. He had his first at-bat in the bottom of the seventh. Olson faced Drew Rasmussen. He hung in the at-bat for six pitches to include fouling off a potential third strike, but he ultimately hit a routine fly ball to Randy Arozarena.
Matt Olson was able to get a second at-bat in. This time it was in the ninth and he faced ageless wonder Aroldis Chapman. Olson decided to swing on the first pitch he saw, which was a 97 MPH sinker inside, and somehow popped it up to SS. Defensively Olson picked up four putouts.
Raisel Iglesias finally made his All-Star debut this season in his twelfth MLB season. It can definitely be argued that he should have way more than one selection so it was nice to finally see him out there. Iglesias came in to pitch in the sixth inning and pitched a scoreless inning. He was able to get Kevin McGonigle to ground out, followed by a deep fly out from Cody Bellinger. He did give up a single to the red hot Willson Contreras, but recovered and forced a ground ball from Randy Arozarena.
Everyone boo Dave Roberts. He did not put in Chris Sale to pitch his tenth All-Star game when Sale said he was willing to pitch. He also did not put in rival Giants’ Logan Webb. Coincidence?
Overall the game was dominated by the AL pitching. The NL only had three hits the entire game. The NL pitching was not bad except for the first inning for the most part, but they could not get the bats going at all.
