Burnes tosses scoreless inning in All-Star Game, Santander scores winning run

ARLINGTON, Texas – Corbin Burnes jogged from the American League dugout to the mound tonight to begin his warmup tosses, paused and conducted a television interview. He smiled, gave the network what it wanted and got down to business.

The 94^th All-Star Game remained a glamorized exhibition, but Burnes tried to find his competitive fire, tossing a scoreless first inning on 19 pitches and retreating to the clubhouse.

A one-out walk to Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper’s two-out double down the left field line extended Burnes’ stay. He fielded William Contreras’ grounder, threw to first and wrapped his arms around his former Brewers catcher as they converged along the line.

It truly is an exhibition.

“It was fun,” Burnes said before the AL's 5-3 win. “I wish I wouldn’t have walked Shohei, but it was fun. I mean, there’s really no words to express just the atmosphere playing around the best players in the game. I told them to be ready, I’m going to let them put it in play, so they were ready out there, and fortunately, we got out of it with a scoreless inning.”

Burnes was the first Orioles pitcher to start the All-Star Game since 1980 Cy Young Award winner Steve Stone. Jim Palmer made four starts. Milt Pappas and Jerry Walker each made one.

None of them arrived the day of the event and flew home later that night to rejoin their wife and newborn twins.

“It’s just kind of been a crazy first half of the year for me, so to kind of cap it off with this is pretty cool,” he said. “But I think at some point I’ll be able to sit down and think about it and reflect. But this has been an awesome experience getting the start and getting to be around this group of guys.”

It only happened because his wife, Brooke, insisted that he accept the invitation. She’d be fine.

“My wife always says, ‘You never know when it’s going to be your last, so you don’t want this one to be the last and not have been able to attend,’” Burnes said. “So from the get-go, she’s told me, ‘You’re going, you’re going, you’re going.’ So it was more me saying, ‘OK fine, I’ll go.’ Just family to me is everything, so even just getting away from them for like 12 hours is tough for me. But I’m glad I came. It’s a great experience.

“I guess she’s pretty smart, so I guess I better listen to my wife when she says something like that.”

Burnes also would have missed his reunion with Contreras.

“It was good,” he said. “I almost walked him. I’m glad I got him out. He’s probably not too happy about it. But it’s always good to face old teammates and even better to get them out.”

Pirates rookie Paul Skenes walked Juan Soto in a scoreless bottom of the first inning. Gunnar Henderson bounced to the mound.

“I just watched it in there on the TV. Kid’s got good stuff,” Burnes said.

“He’s had a great start to his career. Obviously, he was only drafted about a year ago, so it’s crazy to be on the ride he’s been on for the last year. But yeah, he’s got incredible stuff, great arm. He should have a pretty long career in this game.”

Henderson grounded to first in the third inning with two runners on base and no outs. Soto followed with a two-run double off the Giants’ Logan Webb and scored the tying run on pinch-hitter David Fry’s single.

Henderson didn't get another at-bat, but he turned a double play in the third and made a nice backhand stop on a short hop and threw out Jurickson Profar to end the top of the fourth.

Adley Rutschman caught Burnes, the first time in Orioles history that they had the starting pitcher and catcher in an All-Star Game. He grounded into a force play against the Braves' Max Fried to end the second inning and struck out in the fourth against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga.

"It was a lot of fun," Rutschman said of teaming with Burnes. "Light hearted. Just felt right at home."

Rutschman, who set the target for Mason Miller in the fifth when the Athletics closer struck out Ohtani and Trea Turner, was playing in his second All-Star Game and first as a starter. The experience doesn’t get old.

“Oh, awesome. It’s been so much fun,” he said. “Just watching Gunnar hit last night was a blast. Being able to cheer him on and bring him Gatorade and whatnot, just such a cool experience to share with these guys.

“So cool to watch him, just like the entire year in general and like his entire career, but especially last night. That’s just another moment that you’re like, ‘Wow, look at him go.’ Just such a cool thing to see.”

Jordan Westburg was on the ballot as a third baseman but he entered the game at second base in the fifth inning, and Anthony Santander was in right field. Santander singled off the Reds' Hunter Greene with two outs in the fifth inning and came home on Jarren Duran's tie-breaking, two-run homer.

Santander added another link to his career chain, going from Rule 5 pick out of Class A to injury-prone outfielder to All-Star and a player who scored the winning run on the national stage.

“Ah, that’s awesome, especially when you get on base with two outs, 0-2 count and the hitter behind me hit a homer for the win," Santander said. "That’s something really good to get on base. I got a little bit a piece of the win right there.

"As soon as he hit it I knew I was scoring. I got a really good angle right there.”

Santander's Orioles teammates celebrated the moment with him in what could be his final season with the club. He's a pending free agent.

"Awesome, couldn’t be happier for him," Westburg said. "I was yelling at him in the dugout. He turned to me, we made eye contact, connected there. That was pretty cool. It was just fun rooting our guys on. It was fun watching Burnes do his thing from the dugout, which is something I don’t get to do a whole lot. Adley gets to catch him. What a perfect combination there. And Gunnar’s the starting shortstop. It was really cool.”

"It’s great," Rutschman said. "All the guys have a lot of love for each other. It’s pretty cool. This is a lifelong moment for us."

Leading off the eighth, Santander flied out against former Orioles reliever Tanner Scott. The final Oriole to step to the plate.

Westburg, also in the first-timers club, led off the seventh inning against the Padres' Robert Suárez and struck out on a 100.4 mph fastball. The previous pitch was 100.6 mph.

“It was a lot of fun," Westburg said. "Really cool. Just to share the field with a lot of guys who when I was in the minors or I was in high school or was a youth or amateur baseball player, I looked up to and used to watch on television. It was just really fun. Results don’t matter in this particular game. I’m glad we won. But that was just a lot of fun.”

Ohtani hit a three-run homer off the Red Sox’s Tanner Houck in the third inning after Profar and Ketel Marte singled. Ohtani sent a splitter 400 feet to right-center field.

Mike Piazza hit the last Dodgers home run in an All-Star Game in 1996.

The 94th All-Star Game drew an announced sellout crowd of 39,343. The 2025 event will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta.