AL Will Continue To Dominate NL In All-Star Game

National League vs. American League, 7:00 ET

I'm not sure that the MLB All-Star Game is the best of professional sports, but I do think it is one of the more interesting ones. This year, we started with a phenomenal World Baseball Classic, essentially an International All-Star competition. However, the names in the WBC are not as well known as many of the players that will play tonight. Although this is an exhibition, I still think there is money to be made, so let's see how to bet it.

In case you are unaware, the National League kind of sucks at the All-Star Game. The American League has won nine straight and 21 of the past 24 contests. I'm not sure there is a rhyme or reason for why it is happening, but that is the official history. That doesn't include the fact that there was no game played in 2020, and there was the unspeakable tie that the game has never really lived down. (Don't forget the overreaction/correction of "This time, it matters!" as they let the game decide home field advantage for the World Series. But, at least they tried something.) Anyway, if you look at this on the surface level, I think the American League would once again win. As always, though, injuries and pitching recently change the lineups and rosters. The National League alone has five pitchers listed as not pitching in the game that are All-Stars.

Luis Castillo has a good chance to dominate hitters during the All-Star Game. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The pitching staff of the American League, I'm guessing, will be led by Gerrit Cole. Cole is having a great year and deserves the start. Shohei Ohtani was also a choice, but he has a finger issue so I'm assuming he will not pitch at all. Sonny Gray, Nathan Eovaldi, Luis Castillo, and Framber Valdez are likely to go an inning each. I think the National League may have a hard time getting runs across on any of them. As for the National League, their "not pitching" players are simply better than the ones that are remaining. They are not having Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder, Marcus Stroman, and Clayton Kershaw pitching. Then you have Zac Gallen and Justin Steele who are both very strong pitchers, but after that, Josiah Gray from the Nationals is who you might turn to. That's like a Wil E. Coyote moment where you are running off the cliff and then look underneath and see nothing is below you. This could be very ugly.

I really don't think there is a chance, from a pitching perspective, for the National League to win this game. The American League has much more dominant starters considering the ones that will actually be available to pitch. I think the only way to play this is to take the American League at -120. As for a total, it hasn't gone over seven runs in the past three years, I feel like it should here. However, even when the game was played in Coors Field it didn't get over the total, so maybe it isn't worth taking the chance. I'll stick with just the AL and hope we can grab the win.

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