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New York Yankees\u2019 Cody Bellinger hits a two-run single during the MLB baseball All-Star Game between the American League and National League, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2014 Even though the MLB All-Star Game has no bearing on the standings or homefield advantage in the World Series anymore, you never know what type of history you\u2019re going to witness in the Midsummer Classic.<\/p>\n
The Yankees wrote another chapter Tuesday night in the American League\u2019s 4-0 win over the National League at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
With back-to-back singles off the Phillies\u2019 Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice became only the second pair of teammates to drive in a run in the first inning of an All-Star Game. Joe Morgan and George Foster did so for the Reds way back in 1977.<\/p>\n
Bellinger\u2019s single drove in two runs, which was enough to land him the Ted Williams MVP Award. The outfielder finished 1-for-3 when he subbed out of the game in the bottom of the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first All-Star Game experience with my kids and my wife and my family, so this is just a fun experience,\u201d said Bellinger, who received the award alongside his wife and two young daughters, whom he didn\u2019t have at his first two All-Star games in 2017 and 2019 with the Dodgers. \u201cTo share it with other people is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellinger became the fourth Yankee to win MVP since it began in 1962. The others were Giancarlo Stanton in 2022, Mariano Rivera in 2013 and Derek Jeter in 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s special,\u201d said Bellinger, whose father, Clay, played for the Yankees from 1999-2001. \u201cWearing this jersey, I feel proud wearing it. It comes with a lot. I just try to put my best foot forward every day and give it everything I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellinger and Rice went back up the middle on two-out, two-strike sinkers from S\u00e1nchez. The former drove in the Astros\u2019 Yordan Alvarez and the Athletics\u2019 Shea Langeliers, while the latter brought home the Royals\u2019 Bobby Witt Jr.<\/p>\n
Few could have seen that coming considering S\u00e1nchez set a record earlier this season for the most consecutive innings (50.2) by a lefty without allowing a run.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaseball is one of the most unexplainable games there is. Sometimes it just doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cThe guys in front of me did a great job getting on base. With two outs, I\u2019m up with the bases loaded and I just tried to keep it simple. Bobby had a great at-bat in front of me, saw a lot of pitches. I got a good pitch to hit and tried to put a good swing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also ironic because Rice typically hits in front of Bellinger in the Yankees\u2019 lineup. The roles were reversed this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always tells me that I\u2019m his guinea pig, see what they got out there (pitching) and then he makes his judgment off of that,\u201d Rice said. \u201cSo it was kind of cool being behind him and seeing him rip a single up the middle. I said, \u2018OK, alright, we got this, let\u2019s go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Cody Bellinger hits a two-run single during the MLB baseball All-Star Game between the American League and National League, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n
It was a solid night across the board for New York with three players in the 96th edition of this event.<\/p>\n
The Mets\u2019 Juan Soto singled off the Twins\u2019 Joe Ryan to break up the American League\u2019s no-hitter with no outs in the bottom of the fourth. That remained the National League\u2019s only hit until the eighth.<\/p>\n
Yankees captain Aaron Judge was voted into the game as a starting outfielder but was unavailable because of a rib injury. The Yankees\u2019 Cam Schlittler was in contention to start on the mound, but the right-hander decided he didn\u2019t want his typical bullpen throw day \u2014 three days after his last start \u2014 to be in the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
The Mets had no selections besides Soto.<\/p>\n
And yet, Bellinger, Rice and Soto carried the load on a night when both teams mustered seven total hits. Twenty pitchers dominated most of the game with a combined 27 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
With Judge on the injured list since the start of June, Bellinger and Rice have been two of the Yankees\u2019 pillars as they hold the AL\u2019s top Wild Card spot at the All-Star Break with a 54-42 record.<\/p>\n
Bellinger can now bring a piece of hardware back to New York. Who knows? It might just provide some momentum for the Bronx Bombers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to continue winning baseball games,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cWe can win baseball games in many different ways, multidimensional, and we\u2019ve just got to continue to do that and play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Bellinger, who turned 31 on Monday, this was also a poignant moment because while he won the NL MVP Award in 2019, it took him seven more years, a two-year stint with the Cubs and three seasons with the Yankees to make it back to an All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first few years in the big leagues, I was here I think two of my first three years and I was like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll be here every year,\u2019\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cIt took a long time to get back. It\u2019s such a competitive league. It\u2019s hard to be an All-Star. Health, performance \u2014 it all has to come together \u2014 and honestly this one, I just really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Even though the MLB All-Star Game has no bearing on the standings or homefield advantage in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2365,85,375959],"class_list":["post-801785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-trt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}