Playing in his last all-star game at 40, Chipper Jones delivered perhaps the biggest in Monday night’s classic in Kansas City — and the game had not even started.
National League manager Tony LaRussa asked the retiring Jones to address the team in the clubhouse before taking the field, and the Atlanta Brave third baseman Jones eagerly obliged.
“Whether you’re 19 or 40,” Jones told his teammates, “we are all equals here. I am not going out losing my last one. So, you with me?”
The players answered in unison and with conviction that they were, and went out and proved it by handling the American League, 8-0, in the NL’s most lopsided all-star victory.
“I thought Chipper set the tone,” LaRussa said.
If Jones set the tone, a pair of San Francisco Giants upped the volume for the NL team. Melky Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval provided big hits early that produced a lead that the pitchers protected with six-hit ball. Cabrera was the game’s MVP. He scored the game’s first run off a double by Ryan Braun of Milwaukee and belted a two-run home run in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
“I didn’t come to win an MVP. That’s just a surprise,” Cabrera said. “The same opportunity that Kansas City gave me last year is the same opportunity that San Francisco is giving me every day to showcase my talent. Again, I’m just very thankful for the fans that voted for me to come here.”
Sandoval had a bases-loaded triple to drive in three runs and stake the NL to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
“I don’t get many triples,” said the slow-footed Sandoval, known as “Kung Fu Panda.” “We had some fun with that in the dugout.”
It was not that much fun for the American League. Detroit ace Justin Verlander got rocked for five runs. Conversly, the Giants’ Matt Cain and the rest of the NL pitching staff combined to allow just a half dozen hits.
The win gives the National League the home-field advantage in the upcoming World Series.
