Giant leap for AL in 4-3 All-Star Game victory

ST. LOUIS — On a night that President Obama fired a high hard one — OK, a soft low one — to christen the All-Star Game, his famous slogan was disproved.

When it comes to the National League winning this game: No, They Can't.

MLB might as well just cut out all the unnecessary ceremony. You know, like innings one through nine, or beyond on occasion, and just grant the American League home-field advantage for life in the World Series.

The NL's losing streak is as long as Ryan Franklin's beard, and just as mangy.

The faces change, the scenarios change, but one thing is constant: American League supremacy in the Mid-Summer Classic. All that's missing is a James Earl Jones speech.

The AL has now won seven in a row since the tie in Milwaukee in 2002. Before that, they had won five in a row. The NL's last victory came in 1996, when Tim Lincecum was just a wee lad throwing razor-sharp curve balls in Little League. He would have been in Senior League, but the scouts didn't think his arm would hold up.

This time, the heroes of the AL's 4-3 victory at Busch Stadium were Curtis Granderson and Carl Crawford. Last year, it was J.D. Drew and Michael Young. Next year, it will be a Junior Circuiteer to be named later.

Ichiro, who has given a fabled, expletive-laden pep talk at the pregame team meeting in his previous All-Star Games, all victories, is off the hook. Because Obama schmoozed with both teams in the clubhouse before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, there was no time for a pregame meeting.

"They always have me say a few words," Ichiro said afterward. "This time, I didn't say anything, and we still won. That puts a period on history. I'm glad to get that over with."

Albert Pujols was supposed to be the one to put an exclamation point on history in this game, but life doesn't always imitate Hollywood. Pujols went hitless in three at-bats (including a ground out against Felix Hernandez, who worked a flawless sixth) and made a key first-inning error that led to an unearned run and set up another.

Somehow, I don't think that was in the St. Louis-centric script that featured Clydesdales, a silhouette of The Arch cut into the outfield grass, and Stan "The Man" Musial being driven onto the field before the game as the crowd of 46,760 cheered wildly for their patron saint of Cardinals baseball.

"That's an error you don't want to make early in a game like that," Pujols said. "It cost us two runs. But, hey, it's part of the game, and you learn from that experience."

The National League has built up a generation's worth of such lessons. Ask Derek Jeter, the AL's elder statesman, about his league's dominance, and he acts like you just asked a pitcher with a perfect game going to talk about his no-no.

"I don't even want to try to figure it out," he said. "Everyone talks about the streak, but there have been a lot of close games like this one that could have gone either way."

But it didn't. It never does. By the time the eternal Mariano Rivera got Miguel Tejada to pop out to end it, it was so quiet at Busch Stadium you could hear a pin drop at the Bowling Hall of Fame down the street.

This game swung on Crawford's leaping catch to rob Colorado's Brad Hawpe of a home run in the seventh, and Granderson's triple in the eighth off Heath Bell that sparked the winning rally to break a 3-3 tie.

"That just goes to show you defense wins championships, and defense wins All-Star Games, too," Jonathan Papelbon, the pitcher on the hook for Hawpe's blast, said of Crawford's catch.

Just to further tweak Mariners fans already grumpy about watching Tim Lincecum (aka The Wonder That Got Away) start for the National League, the winning run was driven in by Adam Jones (aka, The Wonder That Got Away Along With Four Other Past and Future All-Stars For A Guy That Can't Stay Healthy).

Jones' sacrifice fly brought in Granderson, and the rest was familiar history. It was noted to Felix Hernandez after the game, with some whimsy, that the Mariners will have home-field advantage in the World Series if, you know, it's at Safeco.

"That's what we want," he said with a smile.

Hey, on this night, as it is every year at this time, it is perfectly appropriate for an American Leaguer to dream big.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com