PHILADELPHIA — The 2026 MLB All-Star Game began with three runs in the top of the first inning. It was quiet after that. One of the stories heading into game could have been the lack of big-name pitchers, but instead the lesser-known All-Star pitchers completely stymied both offenses — save for the AL in the first inning against Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sánchez and then a solo homer from Miguel Vargas in the eighth.
The AL got three runs on the Phillies ace and that would nearly conclude the scoring for the night in a 4-0 American League win.
The list of pitchers who didn’t appear in the game is quite impressive. Justin Verlander was a legend pick for this All-Star Game, but wasn’t available to pitch. Going to the next generation, Gerrit Cole is coming off Tommy John surgery this season and hasn’t been great. Zack Wheeler declined an invitation.
As for those on the ASG rosters and healthy this season… Chris Sale was on the NL team but didn’t appear in the game. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, fresh off winning World Series MVP last season, didn’t either. Down to the youngest generation of huge names, Jacob Misiorowski didn’t pitch, nor did Chase Burns or Paul Skenes. Cam Schlittler, nope. Shohei Ohtani is injured and wasn’t even here.
Who did pitch? A litany of lesser-known studs who made the most of their opportunity.
Let’s zero in on the AL side, where they combined for a shutout.
- Despite two top-five Cy Young finishes, this was Dylan Cease‘s first All-Star Game. The Blue Jays righty struck out three hitters in a scoreless first.
- First-timer Parker Messick (Guardians) has only made 26 career starts but he is having an excellent season and showed his stuff with a 1-2-3 second.
- Michael Wacha (Royals) was a big name circa 2013-15, but he hasn’t been an All-Star since ’15. He’s been a workhorse this season and struck out two in a perfect third.
- Joe Ryan (Twins) is now a two-time All-Star, but his name is probably more prominent in trade rumors than anything else. He is a quality frontline starter, though, and having his best season yet. He worked around one hit in a scoreless fourth.
- Nick Martinez was signed by the Rays on a one-year deal in the offseason to little fanfare. He, again, is having the best year of his career. He threw a perfect fifth.
- Cade Smith (Guardians) in his third year in the majors has grown into one of baseball’s best closers. He struck out two in his perfect inning.
- Drew Rasmussen is now a two-time All-Star, but he isn’t a huge name, nationally. He is a great pitcher and showed it in his ⅔ of an inning.
- Rangers closer Jacob Latz spent parts of eight seasons in the minors before finally sticking in the majors. He’s a first-time All-Star at age 31. He retired the only batter he faced.
- Louis Varland (Blue Jays), a first-time All-Star in his fifth season is having a monster campaign. He’s already got 2.7 WAR and he’s a reliever. He worked around a single for a scoreless eighth.
- Rays closer Bryan Baker got the final out. He is, you guessed it, a first-time All-Star. He’s 31 years old. It had to be quite a thrill to get the final out.
The ninth inning did feature three big-name closers. Mason Miller of the Padres and Joan Duran of the Phillies combined for three outs in the top half before Red Sox veteran Aroldis Chapman threw for the AL. By the ninth inning, however, half the crowd was gone, the energy had been sucked out of Citizens Bank Park and Duran’s entrance even malfunctioned for a few seconds.
The biggest takeaway here is kudos to these lesser-known-yet-very-good pitchers for holding down a powerful National League roster.
This isn’t really an ongoing problem that needs addressing. There are injuries. Some pitchers are already pushing team-imposed workload limits.
Take Misiorowski. He was scratched from his last scheduled start. He only threw 129 ⅓ innings between the minors and majors last season before getting 12 more in the playoffs. So far this season he’s at 111 innings. Surely the Brewers want to take it easy with him.
And he’s fine with that, especially since he pitched in the game last season and has plans to do it again.
“Honestly I think it was a little more fun, in a way,” said Misiorowski. “No stress comes with it, you don’t have to worry about pitching and can just have fun and soak it all in.
“Yeah, I’d love to pitch in another All-Star Game. I love to compete.”
Burns is another. He only threw 109 ⅓ innings between the minors and bigs last season. He’s already to 102 ⅔ this year. He understood the decision as well.
“It was a hard decision to make and everything, but now I’m ready to pitch and the Reds mean a lot to me. The second half means a lot to me.”
Much like Misiorowski, Burns said he’s planning on getting back to the All-Star Game in the future anyway.
As for some of the older pitchers, Sale, for example, has thrown in six different All-Star Games. It certainly means a lot more to some of the other NL pitchers who got in the game, like Riley O’Brien, Justin Wrobleski, Foster Griffin and Eduardo Rodriguez — all first-time All-Stars.
Still, it’s possible there were a good number of disappointed fans wondering who these guys on the mound were. The All-Star Game is an event that is for casual fans, much moreso than diehard fans who were excited to see Martinez, Smith and Latz dealing for the AL.
Since I’m a positive guy, I’ll stick with my story that this was a really fun showcase for these deserving and mostly first-time All-Stars. It’s enough of a thrill to be named an All-Star under all their various circumstances. It’s even sweeter to go out and stifle the NL bats.
