Shohei Ohtani helps gets AL get All-Star win

DENVER - A Sho-case for Shohei Ohtani became a grand stage for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., too.

Ohtani unleashed his 100 mph heat while pitching a perfect inning for the win in becoming baseball's first two-way all-star, Guerrero rocked Coors Field with a 468-foot home run and the American League breezed 5-2 Tuesday night for its eighth straight victory.

Near and far, the sport's entire focus was on Ohtani from the very start.

Players on both sides climbed to the dugout rails to watch him, and the Japanese sensation went 0-for-2, grounding out twice as the AL's leadoff man and designated hitter.

Jared Walsh, Ohtani's teammate on the Los Angeles Angels, got a save - with his glove. He made a sliding catch in left field on the Cubs' Kris Bryant's tricky liner with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning. Bryant played left field and got two at-bats with no hits.

Cubs teammate Craig Kimbrel got two outs in the ninth inning while allowing 1 hit.

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks worked the ninth inning to pick up the save, allowing 2 hits and striking out one. Lance Lynn pitched a scoreless inning, and Tim Anderson got into the game at shortstop but had no at-bats.

Carlos Rodon, the fourth Sox all-star, did not get in the game.

Even with the teams decked out in new uniforms that social media deemed a strikeout instead of a home run, it was a familiar result. Mike Zunino also connected for the AL as it improved to 46-43-2 overall in the series.

J.T. Realmuto homered for the National League on a mile-high night at Coors, baseball's ultimate launching pad.

A 27-year-old right-hander in his fourth big-league season, Ohtani has dazzled. He leads the major leagues with 33 homers and is 4-1 in 13 starts as a pitcher, a two-way performance not seen since Babe Ruth in 1919 and '20, before the Bambino largely gave up the mound for slugging.

"This has been the best experience, most memorable," he said through translator Ippei Mizuhara. "Obviously, I've never played in the playoffs or World Series, so once I do that, that's probably going to surpass it. But this has been the most memorable."

Ohtani was a double triple-digit threat in Denver, hitting a 513-foot drive during Monday night's Home Run Derby and throwing a 100.2 mph pitch to Nolan Arenado.

"He was as good as advertised," Arenado said.

Following a full day, Ohtani slept until 10:30 a.m.

"It was a lot more tiring compared to the regular season, but if everyone had fun I'm good with it," he said.

Major League Baseball even made a special rules tweak for Ohtani, allowing him to be replaced as a pitcher and to remain in the game as the DH after he was done pitching. He grounded out twice - Pittsburgh second baseman Adam Frazier ranged to make a nice backhanded pickup that prevented a hit against Max Scherzer starting the night.

Ohtani combined with Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Nathan Eovaldi, Gregory Soto, Chris Bassitt, Andrew Kittredge, Matt Barnes and Liam Hendriks on an eight-hitter.

Hendriks got the save, helped by a lucky bounce that turned what would've been a wild pitch into an out at second.

Despite another season of strikeouts that have alarmed baseball's leadership, NL batters whiffed 12 times while AL hitters had just three strikeouts.

Still, the result had a familiar ring. The AL has won 20 of the last 23 All-Star Games with one tie thrown in.

While everything is measured with precision these days, Guerrero's third-inning drive against Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes was jaw-dropping even before Statcast revealed it went 468 feet, the longest since All-Star Games were wired in 2015.

As the ball landed at the top of the left-field seats under the huge video board, NL shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., another of "juniors" among a record 42 first-time All-Stars, turned slowly and put both hands over his head.

Guerrero's homer was the 200th in All-Star history and he followed in the bat path of his father, Vladimir Guerrero, who homered off Brad Penny in the 2006 game at Pittsburgh. They joined Bobby Bonds (1973) and Barry Bonds (1998 at Coors) and Ken Griffey Sr. (1980) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1992) as the only father-son duos with All-Star homers.

Guerrero added an RBI grounder in the fifth against Miami's Trevor Rogers, and Boston's Xander Bogaerts followed with an RBI single for a 4-0 lead. Both runs were unearned after shortstop Brandon Crawford misplayed Teoscar Hernandez's grounder for an error.

Toronto's Marcus Semien had put the AL ahead with an RBI single in the second off Burnes, who took the loss.

Realmuto homered in the fifth off Soto, a more pedestrian 430-foot drive that was the first by a Philadelphia All-Star since Mike Schmidt in 1981.