Historic swing-off and robot umpires: How the 2025 MLB All-Star Game played out in Atlanta

Kyle Schwarber went three for three in the first All-Star Game home run swing-off as the National League (NL) won the game on a tiebreaker following a 6-6 tie, in which the American League (AL) rallied from a six-run deficit on Tuesday night.

In baseball's equivalent of soccer's penalty-kicks shootout, the game was decided by having three batters from each league take three swings each off coaches.

Schwarber was named All-Star MVP after going zero for two with a walk in the game, but he had the decisive swing that put the NL team up 4-3 in the swing-off.

Players from both teams stood outside their dugouts during the swing-off, jumping and shouting after each homer from their side. When Jonathan Aranda's last swing for the AL fell short, NL players circled around Schwarber to celebrate.

"It was awesome," Schwarber said. "The guys were really into it. They were yelling, screaming, cheering me on every swing. And then when that last one goes over, they were all pumped. It was a lot of fun."

Managers had to declare their swing-off orders before the game, although Kyle Stowers subbed for Eugenio Suarez for the NL after Suarez was hit on the hand by a pitch late in the game.

Brent Rooker put the AL ahead by homering on his last two swings, and Stowers hit one.

Randy Arozarena boosted the AL lead to 3-1, and Schwarber was successful on all three tries, going down to a knee as he sent the one into the Chop House seats in right.

'We did it the easy way'

Aranda failed on all three tries, hitting the right-field wall with his second, and the NL didn't have to use its last batter, two-time Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso, as it won for just the second time in the last 12 All-Star Games. The AL leads 48-45 with two ties.

"I was ready for it," said Alonso, who began warming up in a batting cage when the AL tied the game in the ninth inning. "But I'm glad Schwarbs did it and we did it the easy way."

Ketel Marte's two-run double in the first had put the NL ahead, and Alonso's three-run homer off Kris Bubic and Corbin Carroll's solo shot against Casey Mize opened a 6-0 lead in the sixth inning.

The AL comeback began when Rooker hit a three-run pinch homer against Randy Rodriguez in a four-run seventh inning that included Bobby Witt Jr.'s RBI groundout.

Robert Suarez allowed consecutive doubles to Byron Buxton and Witt with one out in ninth, and Steven Kwan's infield hit on a three-hopper to third off Edwin Diaz drove in the tying run.

Heat on the mound

Joe Torre, the 84-year-old former Yankees manager, went to the mound for a pitching change in the eighth to take the ball from Shane Smith and hand it to Andrés Muñoz. The Hall of Famer was picked as a coach by current New York skipper Aaron Boone, who managed the AL.

Paul Skenes, the first pitcher to start the All-Star Game each of his first two seasons, struck out Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene in a perfect first that included Aaron Judge's inning-ending groundout. The 23-year-old right-hander reached 100 mph on four of 14 pitches.

Jacob Misiorowski, a controversial inclusion after pitching in just five major league games in his rookie season, fired nine pitches of 100 mph or more in a one-hit eighth 34 days after his major league debut. The 23-year-old righty, added to the NL roster by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, reached 102.3 mph.

There were 21 pitches of 100 mph or more, down from a record 23 last year but up from 13 in 2023, 10 in 2022 and one in 2021.

Robot umpire debuts

Four of five challenges were successful in the first use of the robot umpire in the All-Star Game.

Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh signaled for an appeal to the Automated Ball-Strike System in the first inning, getting a strikeout for Detroit's Tarik Subal on San Diego's Manny Machado.

Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson also was successful as the first batter to call for a challenge, reversing a 1-0 fastball from Washington's MacKenzie Gore in the fifth inning that had been called a strike. Mets closer Edwin Diaz and Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk also won challenges, and Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers lost one.

Freddie Freeman was removed for Alonso with two outs in the third inning, giving the crowd of 41,702 a chance to cheer a player who spent 12 seasons with the Braves and helped win the 2021 World Series title.

Teams were back in their regular-season club jerseys — whites for the NL, mostly grays for the AL — after four years of special All-Star uniforms that were much criticized.

Baseball style on display in Atlanta

Jazz Chisholm Jr. arrived in a Valentino smoking jacket and Christian Louboutin shoes. Instead of having players line up on the foul lines as they were introduced, they walked to a four-level red podium stretching across the infield dirt with flashing lights, smoke a DJ and dancers.

The game is being played in Atlanta, some might say, four years late. 

The 2021 All-Star Game has previously been awarded to Atlanta. But just months before it was to be played, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced it would be moved — because Georgia had recently passed a law that many said restricted voting rights, particularly among non-white voters. 

"Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," Manfred said at the time. 

The law remains in place, though some parts have been blocked by federal courts. Asked later about the decision to have Atlanta host this year's game, Manfred said he understood that some people "probably still have different views" on his decision to move the game in 2021. 

He added that what's "most important" is that Atlanta's team is "a great organization." 

The American League has won 10 of the last 11 editions of the Midseason Classic.