Category: MLB

I hope every MLB fan gets used to Bobby Witt Jr. in the All-Star Game. This is already Witt’s third All-Star Game, and Witt just turned 26 last month. The Kansas City Royals record for most All-Star selections is George Brett with 13; Salvador Perez is second with nine. After that, multiple Royals are tied with five selections, and it seems at least that Witt is on track to move into third place as soon as 2028.

Joining Witt is Michael Wacha, making his second All-Star appearance. Wacha’s first All-Star Game? All the way back in 2015, when he was but a wee 23-year-old with the St. Louis Cardinals.

It’s an All-Star Game with some new faces (Ben Rice, Drake Baldwin) and some old faces (Mike Trout, Freddie Freeman). May the best team win—and may the on-field interviews be as least cringy as possible.

2026 All-Star Game lineup

Time/Place: 8:00 p.m., Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA
Media: FOX Sports, ESPN Radio (Pre-Game coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET)
Pitching Matchup: AL- RHP Dylan Cease (6-4, 2.56 ERA) NL- LHP Cristopher Sánchez (11-4, 2.62 ERA)

This week’s All-Star Week festivities got off to a bombastic start on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, with outstanding performances from established sluggers and burgeoning stars alike in the Home Run Derby. The spectacle of Jordan Walker silencing a partisan Philadelphia crowd with six consecutive bombs to snatch the title from Kyle Schwarber will be hard to top in terms of pure theatre, but let’s see what the Midsummer Classic itself has to offer!

Tonight, the Yankees will have both Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger representing them in the American League’s starting lineup; they’ll take on Philadelphia ace Cristopher Sánchez on his home mound as the Senior Circuit seeks to claim their second straight victory in the main event. The AL had mounted a late-inning comeback to erase a 6-0 lead, but Schwarber ultimately led the NL to victory by winning a Derby-esque swing-off challenge which replaced extra innings.

Of course, two other Yankees were named All-Stars this season: Aaron Judge and Cam Schlittler. Judge is still working his way back from the rib fracture he sustained in the first week of June. Schlittler was about as deserving as any pitcher to get the starting nod for the AL, but owing to his start this past Saturday, opted not to participate. Strangely, Blue Jays manager John Schneider, who will be leading the American League on the field tonight, said he was always planning to tap the Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease as the starter—even if Schlittler was available to pitch. Weird move, but all right.

Bellinger and Rice will hit consecutively in Schneider’s lineup, at the sixth and seventh spot respectively. (Everybody get those jokes out of the way now.) They were not voted into starting spots, but they will each get the nod regardless due to injuries to Judge and Byron Buxton in Bellinger’s case and the combination of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.‘s withdrawal from the event and replacement Nick Kurtz’s recent addition to the IL.

Rice participated in last night’s Home Run Derby, but failed to advance to the next round. He’ll still get a chance to show off the impressive game power which has brought him to the precipice of 30 home runs at the season’s intermission. Bellinger was slumping mightily ahead of the season’s final week, but finished strong with five hits in the last four games ahead of the break. He gets a chance to keep that momentum going against…well, somebody in the NL’s pitching staff. Since it tends to be a new face pitching every inning, and all. Just one big hit from either of them however, and they could join Derek Jeter (2000), Mariano Rivera (2013), and Giancarlo Stanton (2022) as the only All-Star Game MVPs in Yankees history.

The AL’s lineup is quite front-loaded for pure power, with Mike Trout leading off ahead of Yordan Alvarez, A’s backstop Shea Langeliers and Junior Caminero hitting cleanup. Bobby Witt Jr. and Bellinger provide a more contact-oriented lane in the middle; though both are plenty capable of muscling up themselves. After Rice comes Detroit’s Riley Greene and, yes, the AL’s leading vote-getter, Ernie Clement. To my eye, the NL’s starting lineup is more balanced, but there’s a Ship of Theseus quality to these batting orders, of course.

How to watch

Location: Citizens Bank Park — Philadelphia, PA

First pitch: 8:00 pm ET

TV broadcast: FOX

Radio broadcast: ESPN Radio

Online stream: MLB.tv (internationally)

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Alright, folks. It’s finally here: Ozzie Albies and Drake Baldwin are in the starting lineup for the National League and will rep the Atlanta Braves to begin this season’s MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia. They’ll be joined by Matt Olson, Chris Sale and Raisel Iglesias, making it five Braves representatives for this season’s Midsummer Classic. It’s an exciting time and a much-needed break from what was turning into a bit of a slog as far as the regular season goes for the Braves.

How to watch

There’s no mystery this time. It’s on good ol’ Fox. They’re telling you to tune in at 8:00 p.m. ET so I’d iamgine that’s when the festivities will get started.

Where will the Braves be in the lineup?

Gracelyn did a post on it once the lineups were released on Monday so go check that out for your answer as to where Ozzie Albies and Drake Baldwin will be hitting in the lineup to start tonight’s game.

Are they still doing the whole “Swing-Off” thing in case of a nine-inning tie?

Yep! We got our first taste of it last year when the All-Star Game was at Truist Park and that format is still in place. If it does go to a swing-off then 2026 MLB Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker, Hunter Goodman and James Wood will swing for the National League. The AL has selected Randy Arozarena, Willson Contreras and Munetaka Murakami to swing for them in case it comes down to it.

Let’s have some fun, shall we? Sam will be coming with the recap later tonight, so stay tuned for that.

Starting pitcher for the AL is Toronto’s Dylan Cease, the first Blue Jay to do so since 2009, when Roy Halladay did so. On the mound for the NL will be Cristopher Sánchez of the hometown Phillies. Weirdly, the last Phillies pitcher to start the All-Star Game was… Roy Halladay, in 2011.

This is the 96th All-Star Game, and you can watch on Fox. Coverage started at 3:30 pm Arizona time, but I’m scheduling this to avoid most of the large quantity of bloviating before the game starts, some time after 5 pm. It’s the first time the contest has been at Citizens Bank Park: the last occasion in Philadelphia was exactly thirty years ago, at Veterans Stadium. No D-backs were involved in that contest. 🙂 Though future player Roberto Alomar was. The AL currently leads the series with a 48–45–2 (.516) record, and a 388–380 run advantage. The leagues have alternated wins the last four times: in 2025, the NL prevailed in the first ever swing-off tiebreaker, after blowing a 6-0 lead.

With Citizens Bank Park crossed off the list, that just leaves new Yankee Stadium, Tropicana Field and Sutter Health Park as the only currently active ballparks never to have held an All-Star Game. The last-named – home of the [THIS SPACE FOR RENT] Athletics, in case you were wondering – is for obvious reasons, and the Yankees did have the ASG in their old park relatively recently, in 2008. But the lack of an ASG for our expansion siblings, fifteen years after Arizona got one, is a little odd. I imagine MLB is using it as pressure: “Get a new park and we’ll give you an All-Star Game!” The hope is for the Rays to get a new park for 2029, but I’m severely doubtful.

We will see when and if the two Arizona Diamondbacks on the NL roster get into the game: Corbin Carroll and Eduardo Rodriguez. I’d be particularly happy to see ERod, finally making it into the All-Star Game in his 11th season. Obviously, the record for most seasons before appearing in an All-Star Game belongs to Babe Ruth, who only got selected in his 20th season. That would be because there wasn’t an All-Star Game for the first nineteen. But excluding those early days, only three players have had a longer wait than Eduardo’s 11 seasons to get into the Midsummer Classic, lead by Raul Ibanez who was in his 14th season when picked in 2009.

The Los Angeles area teams will be well represented at the 2026 MLB All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, July 14.

The event serves as a homecoming of sorts for Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout. The three-time MVP is a New Jersey native but has deep ties to Philadelphia, which is located 45 miles south of his hometown.

Trout recently returned from the injured list last week before hitting a two-run home run in the Angels' 13-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on July 8. The home run came on the 15th anniversary of his major league debut.

He had missed 17 games after he suffered a right hamstring strain while running the bases during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 17.

The Los Angeles Dodgers tied for the most selections with six. Four of the six players will be starters for the National League, which is a league-best. First baseman Freddie Freeman, third baseman Max Muncy, outfielder Andy Pages and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani were also named as starters.

Ohtani was the league's leading vote-getter but withdrew from the game due to inflammation and irritation in his left knee. The discomfort in the knee impacted his pitching mechanics, and he was recently pulled from a scheduled start for the Dodgers.

Ohtani has 98 hits, 65 runs, 22 home runs and 58 RBIs in 88 games played. On the mound, he's produced an 8-2 record in 14 starts, allowing 55 hits, 21 runs (17 earned runs) and four home runs. He has struck out 95 and walked 26.

Pages is one of 26 first-time All-Stars. He joins Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh. Pages has complemented his defensive play for the Dodgers in center field with 16 home runs and an .808 OPS.

Right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and left-hander Justin Wrobleski will represent the Dodgers as NL pitchers.

Dave Roberts will serve as the National League manager for the game. He is serving as an All-Star Game skipper for the fifth time in his career.

Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly will serve on Roberts' staff. Mattingly was previously the manager for the Dodgers from 2011 to 2015.

When is 2026 MLB All-Star Game?

The game’s first pitch is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT). It will be broadcast on FOX.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers, Mike Trout prepare for California MLB All-Star Game takeover

I’m not the target market for the All-Star game. I’ll likely watch until Clement bats. And I’m interested in watching how Dylan Cease does. I’m happy for him getting the starting role.

The lineups:

I did watch the World Cup game today and was surprised that Spain beat France so easily. Tomorrow, I have more skin in the game, my parents were from England and so I cheer for them (as well as Canada, who had a terrific run this time).

And there is this, which is absolutely stupid:

Here are the lineups. For the National League and the American League:

Let’s talk about it.

It’s arrived folks! The 2026 version of the Midsummer Classic, pitting the best of the National League against the best of the American League. The Junior Circuit currently leads the all-time series 48-44-3, with the Senior Circuit riding a one-year winning streak after taking last year’s All Star Game. Can the AL bounce back and get the victory, or will the NL make it two straight years taking home the All Star Game trophy?

For A’s fans, we’ll have the treat of watching Shea Langeliers making the start behind home plate this evening. He’ll be catching Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease. ‘Bangeliers’ will also be occupying a spot of honor in the starting lineup, batting third between Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez and Rays third baseman Junior Caminero. Langeliers is guaranteed one at bat but could end up with a couple trips to the plate, depending on how AL manager John Schneider decides to go with him. What are the chances the first-time All Star comes away with the MVP tonight?

Langeliers should have had one of his teammates take the field with him tonight. Alas, a right thumb sprain will prevent Nick Kurtz from taking part in his first All Star game, with Yankees first baseman Ben Rice taking his spot. Kurtz wasn’t elected the starter at first base but after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. decided not to take part Kurtz was named the replacement at first by Schneider. A well-deserved honor, but unfortunately the injury will keep him out tonight. At least he’s still gotten to be around his fellow stars and take part in this week’s festivities.

Here’s how the American League will line up for tonight’s exhibition contest:

And here’s how the National League’s lineup will look, courtesy of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts:

First pitch is at 5:00 but the festivities are just getting underway now. Enjoy the game everyone!

First Pitch: 7:00 PM CDT

TV: FOX

Radio: ESPN Radio, TUDN

Hey now, you’re an All Star:NL & AL Rosters

Cristopher Sanchez from the Phillies gets to start on his home mound at Citizens Bank Park, with the AL sending out Dylan Cease from the Blue Jays. This is the first time the ASG has been hosted at this park, but Philly has hosted the contest four times prior.

The Twins have two players selected as All Stars this year, Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan. Buxton is unfortunately injured, so we can only hope that Joe will pitch at some point. If we expand our definition of “Twin” to include former Twins, Louis Varland (TOR) is out there in the bullpen for the AL and Jhoan Duran (PHI) for the NL.

Lineups

John Schneider’s American League:

1. Mike Trout (LAA), CF
2. Yordan Alvarez (HOU), DH
3. Shea Langeliers (ATH), C
4. Junior Caminero (TB), 3B
5. Bobby Witt Jr. (KC), SS
6. Cody Bellinger (NYY), RF
7. Ben Rice (NYY), 1B
8. Riley Greene (DET), LF
9. Ernie Clement (TOR), 2B

Dave Roberts’ National League

1. Kyle Schwarber (PHI), DH
2. Juan Soto (NYM), LF
3. Freddie Freeman (LAD), 1B
4. CJ Abrams (WSH), SS
5. Max Muncy (LAD), 3B
6. Ozzie Albies (ATL), 2B
7. Brandon Marsh (PHI), RF
8. Andy Pages (LAD), CF
9. Drake Baldwin (ATL), C

Major League Baseball’s night to celebrate its own has finally arrived. The 96th Midsummer Classic begins at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) tonight at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This is the fifth time an All-Star Game has been held in Philly, but the first time at Citizens Bank Park.

The A’s are represented by two deserving All-stars, Shea Langeliers who will be the American League (AL) starting catcher, batting third in the lineup and Nick Kurtz who unfortunately can’t play due to his thumb injury. Both were seen reveling in the excitement of the Home Run Derby last night.

Starting for the AL is Toronto’s ace Dylan Cease. Cease is currently 6-4 with a 2.56 ERA in seventeen starts. The 30-year-old righty has notched 148 strikeouts in 98.1 innings for the Jays this season. It’s his first All-star game appearance.

Taking the ball for the National League (NL) is Philadelphia’s own, Cristopher Sánchez. He’s the first Phillies pitcher to get the nod since Roy Halliday in 2011. This year, Sánchez is 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA in twenty starts. He’s struck out 144 batters in 127.1 innings. The 29-year-old lefty was an NL All-star in 2024.

Managing the team for the American League is John Schneider of the defending AL champion Blue Jays.  He’ll start this lineup for the visiting team:

Dave Roberts, skipper of the World Series champion Dodgers, will present this lineup to start the game for the National League:

Here are the full rosters for both leagues: https://www.mlb.com/news/2026-all-star-game-rosters.

Follow the Game:
Watch:
National – FOX

Listen:
ESPN Radio, TUDN

American League lineup

Mike Trout – CF (Los Angeles Angels)

Yordan Alvarez – DH (Houston Astros)

Shea Langeliers – C (Athletics)

Junior Caminero – 3B (Tampa Bay Rays)

Bobby Witt Jr. – SS (Kansas City Royals)

Cody Bellinger – RF (New York Yankees)

Ben Rice – 1B (New York Yankees)

Riley Greene – LF (Detroit Tigers)

Ernie Clement – 2B (Toronto Blue Jays)

SP: Dylan Cease – RHP (Toronto Blue Jays)

National League lineup

Kyle Schwarber – DH (Philadelphia Phillies)

Juan Soto – LF (New York Mets)

Freddie Freeman – 1B (Los Angeles Dodgers)

CJ Abrams – SS (Washington Nationals)

Max Muncy – 3B (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Ozzie Albies – 2B (Atlanta Braves)

Brandon Marsh – RF (Philadelphia Phillies)

Andy Pages – CF (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Drake Baldwin – C (Atlanta Braves)

SP: Cristopher Sánchez – LHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 8:00 PM EDT
TV: FOX
Radio: ESPN Radio

Tonight is the MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia, and many of the best players from around the league will be in the game. For the Brewers, only two players were named to this year’s team: Jacob Misiorowski and William Contreras.

The only player who will appear in tonight’s game is Contreras. It has been another solid season for him, who has posted a .282/.344/.398 batting line with nine home runs and 53 RBIs. He will appear as a reserve during the game in the later innings.

The other Brewer on this year’s team is Jacob Misiorowski. This is his second straight season where he has been named an All-Star. However, he will not appear in this year’s game as he rests up due to some fatigue that he was feeling before the break.

Here are the starting lineups for tonight’s game. Cristopher Sánchez will start the game for the National League, and Dylan Cease will get the ball first for the American League. The full rosters for each team can be found here. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on FOX.

It’s the Midsummer Classic tonight in Philadelphia, just a few weeks after America’s 250th birthday. Is that why it’s in Philadelphia? Who knows?

The Red Sox have several representatives this year, which is kind of crazy given how most of this season has gone. Ceddanne Rafaela, Willson Contreras, and Aroldis Chapman are representing the team tonight, while Ranger Suarez was also named an All-Star but isn’t participating due to injury. Is there anything you’d like to see? Personally, I think it would be funny if Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch in a way that doesn’t hurt him. Has a suspended player ever played in the All-Star Game? Ceddanne making a diving catch would be a nice way for him to introduce himself to a wider audience, too.

First pitch will be some time after 8 PM (who knows what kind of pregame stuff they have planned) on FOX.

Lineups:

Spirits are high at the MLB All-Star festivities.

The event is being held in Philadelphia, where the league is celebrating all things United States just weeks after the country's 250th anniversary.

Jordan Walker got the world of baseball charged up when he became the first St. Louis Cardinals player to win the Home Run Derby on Monday, July 13. He was among the stars walking the red carpet ahead of the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 14. The defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers were represented well by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and reliever Aroldis Chapman of the Boston Red Sox brought the swag.

Across the afternoon, there were cleverly coordinated outfits with loved ones, pops of color and incredible accessories.

Here are the best looks of the 2026 MLB All-Star Game red carpet: