SEATTLE, WA - JULY 11: Julio Rodriguez #44 of the Seattle Mariners acknowledges the crowd during the 93rd MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos …
SEATTLE - Julio Rodríguez and George Kirby both got their chance to play in the All-Star Game in front of the hometown fans in Seattle. Rodríguez played four innings in the field and got two at-bats while Kirby pitched the fourth inning for the American League.
Rodríguez went 0-1 with a strikeout and a two-out walk in the ninth inning off Philadelphia Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel to keep the AL's chances of a rally alive.
"It meant the world just kind of having the opportunity to kind of step on the plate again with a chance to do something special," Rodríguez said of the moment. "The crowd knew, everybody kind of felt it in the building, and it was pretty surreal the energy that they were sending down.
"Definitely I was trying to win it, honestly. But it was given the situation that I had to pass the baton. Once I saw the guy got just kind of getting going to first, my thought was just get a good pitch to drive and just let's try to win this game. But I had to pass the baton."
Al manager Dusty Baker was impressed with the at-bat by Rodríguez knowing how much he wanted to win the game in the moment.
"I was just thinking, hey, man, he would bring the house down and the whole baseball world and the town down," Baker said. "This was a moment that very rarely is going to happen in your life. I always wanted to play in an All-Star Game and in my hometown, and it never happened. But I mean that was quite a -- it was all set up. It was all set up.
"That's when you are not thinking about yourself, that's when you're thinking about the team. Because everybody wants to be the hero but that was a situation, he took a close pitch, well, from my angle, but, boy, I just knew it was going to happen and it didn't."
Kimbrel rebounded from a pair of walks to strike out José Ramírez to give the National League a 3-2 victory to snap a nine-game losing streak to the American League.
Kirby gave up a leadoff double to J.D. Martinez in the fourth inning. Luis Arraez, who leads all of MLB with a .383 average with the Miami Marlins, delivered an RBI single that drove in Martinez for the NL's first run of the game.
"Yeah I had a lot of fun today," Kirby said. "Met a lot of good dudes. I learned a lot of different things today. Picked people's brains, just being around all those guys that I grew up watching was pretty cool. So still taking it all in and I'm just glad I did my first time in front of Seattle fans."
Ultimately, Kirby lamented the curveball he threw to Martinez that he lashed into the left field corner.
"Yeah, I don't know why I threw a curveball there. That was stupid," he said. "Should have thrown a heater, but it is what it is."
Luis Castillo remained a spectator for the contest and did not pitch in the game. Baker said that Castillo was held out and would only have pitched in an emergency situation due to Castillo pitching on Friday against Baker's Astros in Houston.
"Well, I had his manager (Scott Servais) sitting right next to me," Baker said with a laugh. "You know what I mean? So he was kind of in an emergency situation. That's the only reason. He pitched not long ago against us in our ballpark.
"So you've got to take care of the other guy's players."