SEATTLE — It was so long ago that Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto is the only active player still around from that starting lineup.
It was so long ago that the Houston Astros were still in the National League.
It was so long ago that St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday was six years from retirement, and now has a son who’s baseball’s top prospect.
It was the first All-Star Game for Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.
The year was 2012.
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It was the last time the National League won an All-Star Game.
Well, Tuesday night, in front of 47,159 witnesses at T-Mobile Park, the drought mercifully ended.
The National League finally won an All-Star Game, 3-2 over the American League, ending a cruel 10-year stretch.
“We were aware of it,” said San Diego Padres All-Star closer Josh Hader, who was playing in his fifth All-Star Game. “Coming to these things as an athlete, you always want to win. That’s in our blood, right? To be able to experience that, and win this game, it was special.”
Says New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso: “It’s awesome. I mean, it’s a long time coming. I’m just so happy to be part of it.”
It was an evening in which the Seattle Mariners’ fans serenaded Los Angeles Angels pending free agent Shohei Ohtani with “Come to Seattle” chants. It ended with fans scratching their head in disbelief that a man they never heard of, Elias Diaz, a 32-year-old catcher with the Colorado Rockies, was MVP of the All-Star Game.
It was Diaz’s pinch-hit, two-run homer in the eighth inning off Baltimore Orioles closer Felix Bautista that turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, the first All-Star lead change in the eighth inning or later via a homer since Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers in 2003.
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“When I was rounding the bases,” Diaz said, “I was just overwhelmed with emotion. A ton of emotions.
“It feels incredible. When we all got here, we all talked about how we were going to bring home the win. I just didn’t realize it was going to be me to bring home the win.”
Diaz was the first player to win an All-Star MVP as his team’s lone All-Star representative since Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. in 2001 with the Baltimore Orioles.
“I was talking with my teammates earlier in the game, maybe the third or fourth inning,” Diaz said, “(Atlanta Braves shortstop) Orlando Arcia was telling me that, ‘Hey, you’re going to go up to bat you’re going to hit a home run, and you’re going to win the MVP.
“I didn’t think it was going to turn into all this and win the trophy and whatever other prizes that come with it, but it’s really special.”
The first Rockies catcher in All-Star history now is the first Rockies player to win an All-Star MVP award.
“Man, that’s something that I never could have imagined,” Diaz said. “Obviously I was aware that I was the first Rockies catcher to be an All-Star. I wanted to make the Rockies proud and put my name on the map.
“Obviously I worked really hard to get to where I am, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be in this position.”
Really, the way the American League had dominated the National League for the past decade, who could blame the NL players for believing they were cursed again?
“The energy in the dugout at the end, I wasn’t expecting that,” San Francisco Giants pitcher Alex Cobb said. “It was very relaxed and chill before the game, but as the game went on, everybody had kind of heard about that at some point, and to be part of a win for the first time in 10 years is pretty special.
“But I was kind of torn, I kind of wanted to see the home-run derby at the end of the game, but once we got into the heat of it, and the juices were flowing, and it became intense, it was really exciting to be a part of.”
If the All-Star Game ended in a tie after nine innings, a home-run derby contest would have been staged to decide the winner for the first time in history.
And, for a moment, it looked like that might happen.
Julio Rodriguez, the Mariners’ hometown hero, stepped up to the plate with two outs and Kyle Tucker on base in the ninth. The sellout crowd stood on its feet, believing they were going to see magic.
“I was just thinking, hey man, he would bring the house down, the whole baseball world, and the town down,” AL manager Dusty Baker said. “This was a moment that very rarely is going to happen in your life. I mean that was all set up.”
Well, the National League believed something was mysteriously set up too, making sure that Rodriguez would get to the plate to either win the game with one swing, or send the game into a zany home-run derby.
“It meant the world just having the opportunity to step up to the plate with a chance to do something special,” Rodriguez said. “The crowd knew. Everybody kind of felt it in the building. It was pretty surreal the energy that they were sending down.”
It was a moment so surreal that several National League players couldn’t help but wonder if something was up, almost as if MLB wanted to assure the game would have a Hollywood ending.
“Honestly, I thought it was scripted for a second,” Hader said. “I thought there were a couple of strikes there to Tucker that should have been called, and it was like, ‘Oh, let’s set it up for a Julio matchup, hometown guy who drives in the winning run, or setting it up for a home-run derby.'”
Said Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson: “It felt like he was going to get an at-bat, no matter what, right?”
Rodriguez instead drew a walk on a 3-and-2 pitch, bringing up Cleveland Guardians All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez. He struck out on five pitches against Philadelphia Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel, and the drought was over.
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“You can tell our guys, we wanted to win,” Baker said. “They wanted to win. There was a lot of pride out there and a lot of competitiveness out there. You could tell by the energy on both sides and the energy in the ballpark.”
It may be just an exhibition game, and it will mostly be ignored by the weekend, but for those players in the NL clubhouse, it may never be forgotten.
“I don’t think I was aware how long the drought was,” Olson said. “It was cool. It was kind of crazy. You take the wins always, right?”
It was Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos, playing center field for the first time in his career, who drew a nine-pitch walk to set up Diaz’s heroics. He got his first All-Star hit, scored his first All-Star run, and was on his first All-Star winning team.
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“Really cool, very cool, satisfying,” Castellanos said. “It’s amazing that a run would go that long. But to be able to break it, be a part of that, is really neat.”
And yeah, for it to happen to Diaz, perhaps the most anonymous player in the entire All-Star field, it makes it only sweeter.
“I’m so happy for him, a first-time All-Star as well,” said Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith, “to homer, get the MVP, break that long streak, it’s pretty sick.
“You know what, let’s do it next year. Back-to-back.”
Just don’t forget to invite Diaz again, too.
Follow Bob Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale.
