The Windup: Skenes impresses before and during his ASG debut

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The AL won a flawless All-Star Game and we were there to talk to the players about a multitude of topics. Levi Weaverattached Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!

All-Star Game: Duran gives AL victory

The American League won 5-3 in last night’s Midsummer Classic, with Jarren Duran’s two-run home run in the fifth inning making the difference in both the score and the MVP vote, where Duran’s win ties him with Ted Williams. Here are some highlights:

Paul Skenes’ All-Star debut was quick, but it did provide a bit of suspense in the form of a seven-pitch walk to Juan Soto. Walks aren’t supposed to be exciting, but seeing the 25-year-old Soto face the 22-year-old rookie in their first matchup was somewhat… historic? Soto was the only batter to reach Skenes, who retired Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge in his only inning — after reaching the major leagues less than two months ago.
Shohei Ohtani kicked off the night with a three-run home run off Boston’s Tanner Houck in the third inning to end the scoreless tie. But the AL responded by tying the game in the bottom of the inning on a two-run double by Soto and a single by David Fry, who continues his most improbable rise to stardom in 2024.
In the fifth inning, after AL manager Bruce Bochy replaced seven of his nine players at once, the A’s Mason Miller retired two of the three batters he faced – including Ohtani – before Duran’s two-run homer off the Reds’ Hunter Greene ended the night’s scoring.

Jayson Stark breaks down all the unique and serendipitous moments in today’s Weird & Wild column, and Chad Jennings gives a full recap here.

Ken’s Notebook: Three Key Takeaways from All-Star

1. The rundown of trade deadline candidates who demonstrated why they could be such a value to contenders:

Garrett Hook. The White Sox left-hander pitched a scoreless fourth inning, including a strikeout of Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernández on a 98 mph fastball.
Mason Miller. The A’s closer was brilliant in a 1-2-3 fifth inning, striking out swinging Shohei Ohtani and looking Trea Turner, both on sliders. Oh, and Miller also threw eight fastballs over 100 mph, topping out at 103.
Tanner Scott. The Marlins closer retired the only two batters he faced in the eighth, Anthony Santander and Jarren Duran, the latter of whom was named All-Star MVP for his two-run home run earlier off Hunter Greene.
Pull Skubal. The odds of the Tigers’ left-handed ace being traded are probably slim. But he outpitched Christian Yelich, Alec Bohm and Hernandez in 10 pitches in the second inning, surely whetting the appetites of the Dodgers, Orioles and other teams looking for a controllable starting pitcher.

2. What most impressed Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom, 75, about his one-night standee, National League starting pitcher Paul Skenes?

“How mature he is and how he goes about his business,” said Strom, who pitched in the major leagues in the 1970s and was a pitching coach for three different clubs, including the Astros twice.

“Watching him prepare, he’s very focused. He prepares his body. He prepares his mind. (…) Physically, he’s imposing, obviously. (…) He’s very humble, too. He’s going to be a special pitcher.”

Does Skenes remind anyone of Strom?

“His mechanics are much better than Stephen Strasburg’s when he came on the scene,” Strom said. “I don’t know what a young (Tom) Seaver “That’s what he looked like when he first came in. It was probably similar. A hard right-handed pitcher.”

3. Before the game, Torey Lovullo met with Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman to deliver what the National League manager called good news and bad news. The good news was that Lovullo wanted Hoffman to finish the game. The bad news was that Hoffman might not pitch if the National League lost.

“We’re winning,” Hoffman said, according to Lovullo.

Hoffman was wrong, but Lovullo still brought him in for the final out in the eighth inning, nearly accomplishing his goal of using every player. The only National League All-Stars who didn’t participate were Kyle Finnegan, a last-minute addition, and Luis Arráez, who is nursing a sore thumb.

Lovullo said he enjoyed managing the National League team, although like other All-Star managers, he found the hectic two-day experience exhausting.

“When both teams were on the field, I felt the power of the lineups,” Lovullo said. “I sat there and shook my head for a second and wondered if I was in a dream. I don’t want this to end, that’s what I thought. I was getting drunk on baseball.”

Simple Secret: Why the Mariners are so good at pitching

The Mariners lead the AL West despite having a 27th-ranked offense in runs scored, and that’s thanks to a pitching staff that has allowed the second-fewest runs in MLB.

I asked Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (6-5, 2.79 ERA) yesterday: Why has the rotation been so good?

“The bullpen, too,” Gilbert politely corrected me. “We kind of joke that it’s a factory; we’ll just pull guys from other places and they’ll have a career year… I think as an organization, they just help you understand yourself. So I know what my strengths are, and I just try to build on them.”

It’s reminiscent of the story Chad Jennings wrote during spring training about the Tampa Bay Rays’ reputation for getting the most out of their pitchers. In short, it’s like the team identifies what the pitcher does best and says, “Do it more often!”

It seems like an absurdly simple concept, but it flies in the face of something we’ve seen many times before: organization-wide philosophies that attempt to mold pitchers to fit how an organization views pitching.

There will always be a few But for the Rays — and the striking Mariners — it seems that “be yourself” has become a pretty effective mantra.

The Royals’ mantra? Kansas City’s goal

You’re not allowed to attend your favorite team’s pre-game meetings, but every now and then the players will give you a little insight into what’s being said.

The Kansas City Royals (52-45) are just two games behind the Boston Red Sox for the final wild-card spot in the American League. I caught up with Cole Ragans before last night’s game and asked him what he sees as the most important key to KC making the playoffs.

“Do the little things right. We talk about it as a pitching staff: Move forward, stay ahead, minimize loose bases,” Ragans said. “I think it’s the little things. We’ve got a really good team, a really fun team, everybody supports everybody. So I think it’s just doing the little things right and building from there.”

Vague? Sure, a little. But a few minutes later, I found Bobby Witt Jr. and asked him the same question.

“I think we’re there. We just have to trust ourselves, believe in ourselves and know that our job is exactly where we need to be,” Witt said. “Once we do that, play the game the right way and do the little things right, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Is this an innovation? Well, no: If you asked 100 major league players whether “the little things” mattered, about 101 of them would say yes. But if I had to guess, I’d bet that “the little things” have been a recurring theme for manager Matt Quatraro.

Handshakes and high fives

Commissioner Rob Manfred Yesterday we covered topics like the Olympics, the automated strike zone, and even All-Star uniforms. We’ll delve a little deeper into these topics in tomorrow’s issue.

MLBPA Executive director Tony Clark also spoke, defending the union’s strength in light of the “attempted mutiny” in March.

After all, the final day of the draft featured some recognizable names: The Red Sox drafted 3B D’Angelo Ortiz — David’s son — in the 19th round, while the Angels drafted Lucas Ramirez (Manny’s son) in the 17th round.

The home run derby anthem singer Ingrid Andress addressed her disastrous anthem on Monday, saying alcohol was a factor, and that she was checking into rehab.

Chad Jennings divides the 30 teams into seven transaction deadline levels.

Most clicked in yesterday’s newsletter: Jennings’ story on the 37 new All-Stars this season.

Most read MLB article on the site yesterday: Doug Haller’s stellar article around the 25th anniversary of Ted Williams’ first pitch at the 1999 All-Star Game.