NL Skipper Charlie Manuel, of the National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies, pulled his own ace Roy Halladay from the mound after he'd allowed a two-out single to Josh Hamilton in the bottom of the 6th with the AL ahead 1-0 on the strength of 5.0 scoreless from the Rays' David Price, Yankees' Andy Pettite, Rangers' Cliff Lee, the Tigers' Justin Verlander, Red Sox' Jon Lester and an unforced error by LA Dodgers' pitcher Hong-Chi Kuo in the fifth. Mr. Manuel went to the bullpen for the Washington Nationals' lone All-Star, closer Matt Capps, who came on to face Boston's left-handed slugger David Ortiz. Capps starts Ortiz with two fastballs way outside, then throws a 94mph fastball on the outside edge for a called strike and 2-1 count. Ortiz fouls off a fastball a little further outside than the previous pitch and then, after Capps shakes off three pitches called by Braves' catcher Brian McCann, he throws a Livan-Hernandez-esque two-seam fastball inside for a called strike three and the end of the sixth. Still 1-0 AL.
Capps throws 5 pitches, 3 strikes and is done for the night, and the National League loads the bases on Yankees' right-hander Phil Hughes and Chicago White Sox' left-hander Matt Thornton, who gives up a two-out walk to put three on for Atlanta's McCann, who lines to right for a base-clearing 3-run double and a 3-1 NL lead. Giants' right-hander Brian Wilson retires the AL in order in the eighth, and LA Dodgers' closer Jonathan Broxton gives up a leadoff single to David Ortiz before retiring Boston's Adrian Beltre, Toronto's John Buck and Texas' infielder Ian Kinsler to earn the National League their first curly-W since 1996.
• Miss The All-Star Game? The DC Faithful Were Watching....(Matt Capps comes on at around 10:30 pm EST if you want to skip to the good part, check the GameThread's time stamp.")