ARLINGTON, Texas — The two main All-Star events featured Orioles players at the center.
Superstar Gunnar Henderson, despite not advancing in Monday night’s Home Run Derby, hit last in the first round as a nod to his standing as one of MLB’s best sluggers this season.
Ace Corbin Burnes, despite not arriving in Arlington until Tuesday morning with newborn twins at home, took the mound to open the night’s All-Star Game as one of MLB’s best pitchers, playing pitch and catch with Adley Rutschman on baseball’s biggest stage.
They might not have shined at the All-Star Game as bright as others — Shohei Ohtani clobbered a three-run homer for the National League, Jarren Duran crushed a two-run shot for the American League — but the story of this week can’t be told without the Orioles’ stars.
In years, this week might be seen as a turning point for Baltimore baseball. No longer are the Orioles the fun surprise they were in 2022 or the scrappy, upstart club in 2023.
The Orioles are star-studded. They’re not just worthy of participating in events on the national stage. Those events exist because of players like them.
“It’s a testament to the kind of talent that we have and the kind of players we have,” Rutschman said after playing in his second All-Star Game. “It’s an extremely talented group, and we had a lot of guys who were finalists. Our guys work extremely hard for it, and they definitely deserve it.”
Outfielder Anthony Santander had the best day of any Oriole. The switch-hitter entered in the fifth, lined a single to right field off Cincinnati Reds right-hander Hunter Greene and scored the winning run in the AL’s 5-3 victory, its 10th in the past 11 exhibitions. Santander touched home after the two-run blast from Duran, later named the game’s MVP, for the final scoring play of the 94th Midsummer Classic.
“At, that was awesome,” Santander said. “I got a little bit a piece of the win right there.”
A two-bed hotel room at the La Quinta Inn. Near-daily viewings of the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. A ton of Fortnite.
Five years ago, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson's friendship began as roommates in rookie ball.
From roommates to All-Stars: https://t.co/avUyliGeYL
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) July 16, 2024
Santander’s path to his first All-Star Game was windier than any Oriole. He was a Rule 5 draft pick in 2016. He dealt with persistent injury issues early in his career. His name was frequently in trade rumors throughout the Orioles’ rebuild.
“Not at all,” he said whether he thought this was possible early in his career. “I had a lot of injuries. The only thing I can do at the moment was try to get healthy again and be able to compete. If that happened, I would’ve been grateful like I am right now. But it was never the mentality of, ‘Oh, I need to be an All-Star.’”
Anthony Santander's name was in trade rumors for years. The Orioles never traded him.
Now in his last year before hitting free agency, Santander is an All-Star — one who is 1-for-1 with a single. pic.twitter.com/HZUDN5U9RD
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) July 17, 2024
Throughout all that, the Venezuela native made it to the national stage Tuesday as an Oriole with his family in attendance.
“My motivation was my family for what I came from,” he said. “You come to the states for the opportunity to do something. Baseball bring me the opportunity to play hard so I can provide to my family. Thank God that motivated me to go through those tough moments to build strength — and here we are.”
Burnes, whom the Orioles acquired in the offseason from the Milwaukee Brewers, pitched a scoreless first inning, although he got into some trouble with a walk to Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar, and a double to Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper. But the 29-year-old right-hander buckled down to get Milwaukee’s William Contreras to ground out back to the mound. As Burnes ran to first, he tagged his former catcher and gave him a hug.
Seconds later, he gave his current catcher, Rutschman, another hug to cap off what had been a long day up to that point after flying in from Arizona in the morning. Burnes and his wife, Brooke, have three kids under 3 years old, including newborn twin girls, Charlotte and Harper, and the Orioles ace is spending as much of his All-Star break at home with them. But his wife urged him to go and start his first All-Star Game — and become only the fifth Oriole to do so — and he’s glad he listened to his wife.
“It was fun,” Burnes said. “There’s really no words to express just the atmosphere and playing around the best players in the game.”
Henderson and Rutschman combined to go 0-for-4 at the plate, but the former made a sharp defensive play in the fourth and the latter caught five innings, starting with Burnes and ending with Oakland Athletics flamethrower Mason Miller, the AL’s winning pitcher. At 103.6 mph, Miller threw the hardest pitch in All-Star Game history since pitch-tracking began in 2008.
“There was a couple of pitches where I was like, ‘That’s coming in pretty firm,’” Rutschman said. “It definitely comes out of his hand a little different.”
Jordan Westburg entered as a substitute in the fifth at second base and went 0-for-1, but Tuesday might be the only game of his life in which he believed the “results don’t matter.”
“That was just a lot of fun,” he said.
Westburg said he “couldn’t be happier” for Santander playing a significant role in the AL’s win. His favorite part of the evening was cheering for his teammates.
“It was fun watching Burnes do his thing from the dugout, which is something I don’t get to do a whole lot,” he said. “Adley gets to catch him. What a perfect combination there. And Gunnar’s the starting shortstop. It was really cool.”
He isn’t normally one for the spotlight — although, with the way Westburg is playing in his breakout sophomore season, the bright lights are finding him. He’s glad to leave that to his superstar teams in Rutschman and Henderson.
“It’s really cool for me to take a step back and pinch myself,” he said. “To see the way my friends and guys who I, at one point when I was drafted, I looked up to and said, ‘It would be cool to get to play with them.’ Now we’re getting to play with each other on the biggest stage and we’re friends.”
Westburg’s day started with he and his wife, Anna Claire, walking the red carpet. He did so in classic Westburg fashion — wearing a neat suit that intentionally didn’t stand out, like one he would wear to a wedding or to church.
The infielder grew up four hours south of Arlington in New Braunfels. On the wall of his bedroom was a poster of Rangers infielder Michael Young, who Westburg admired for his dependability — the trait Orioles manager Brandon Hyde repeatedly praises him for. He also looked up to current Rangers shortstop Corey Seager as a shortstop who is a star without demanding too much attention.
It was “special,” he said, for his first All-Star Game to be in his home state so he could have his family and his in-laws there.
“Those are the people I love the most,” he said. “It’s sort of surreal that I’m here.”
Five years ago, Westburg was a college star at Mississippi State before being drafted by Baltimore a year later. Rutschman and Henderson were roommates in rookie ball after being selected with the rebuilding club’s first two picks of the 2019 draft. Burnes was hitting rock bottom of his career with the Brewers before emerging as one of baseball’s best pitchers. And Santander was just making a name for himself as a big leaguer with an Orioles team that lost 108 games.
Tuesday, those days seem like a distant memory. New ones are being created now.
“This is a lifelong moment for us,” Rutschman said.
Orioles at Rangers
Friday, 8:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
