By Morris Phillips

Talk about setting yourself apart.  Mike Trout’s first feat of the evening at the 86^th All-Star game—a leadoff home run as the game’s first batter—hadn’t been accomplished in 38 years.

Trout’s final feat—being named the MVP for the second consecutive year—had never been accomplished.

“I just tried not to do too much,” Trout said of the leadoff homer.  “Put a good swing on the ball. Got two strikes and that calmed me down a little bit.”

“You’ve got like a 2-inch window up in the zone,” NL starting pitcher Zach Greinke said of trying to pitch to Trout.  “If you throw it higher than that, he takes it.  If you throw it lower he does what he did.”

Trout’s big night included giving his American League team the first two leads of the night on the way to a 6-3 victory.  The American League representative in the World Series will have the home-field advantage for the second consecutive year, although it didn’t work out for the Royals last year as the Giants captured Game 7 on the road.  Twenty-three of the last 29 teams to win the Fall Classic have had the homefield advantage.

Greinke had gone five consecutive starts—back to June 13—without allowing a run.  On Tuesday, Greinke was had by Trout in game’s first four pitches.

In the fifth, with the second Dodgers’ pitcher of the night, Clayton Kershaw on the mound, Trout reached on a fielders’ choice. Three batters later, Trout scored the go-ahead run on Prince Fielder’s two-strike base hit through the left side that put the AL ahead to stay. Lorenzo Cain capped the rally on the game’s next pitch with a double down the left field line that scored Albert Pujols.

The American League would go on to score two more in the seventh and one in the eighth to win going away. They forged an especially efficient attack, needing just one hit in both the seventh and eighth innings to score their final three runs. Only in the fourth inning—with Madison Bumgarner pitching for the NL-did the American League get at least one hit, but fail to score a run.

National League hitters had their hands full with Dallas Keuchel, the AL starter, and the eight pitchers that followed. Only Andrew McCutchen with a leadoff homer in the sixth off Chris Archer, and Ryan Braun, with a triple in the ninth off Glen Perkins had any, notable success.

Nine NL batters struck out, but drew only two free passes. NL pitching tallied 15 strikeouts, but was hurt by four walks. Greinke, Jacob DeGrom and Aroldis Chapman combined for 10 of those strikeouts, and DeGrom needed just 10 pitches to strike out all three batters in the sixth.

Detroit’s David Price pitched a perfect fourth inning and was declared the winning pitcher, while Kershaw took the loss.

Of the local All-Stars, none managed to get a base hit, with Buster Posey playing half the game and getting a pair of at-bats. Stephen Vogt of the A’s struck out swinging at high cheese off the arm of DeGrom in his only at-bat. Brandon Crawford’s sacrifice fly in the ninth chased home Braun with the NL’s final run.

Bumgarner got his first All-Star game action by pitching a scoreless fourth inning as NL manager Bruce Bochy elected not to save his ace for the game’s concluding inning.

Trout’s leadoff home run was the first since Bo Jackson accomplished the feat in 1989 as a member of the Giants. AL manager Ned Yost started Trout and three others that formed a quartet 25-years of age or less. In all six players 25 years of age or less started and 20 were named to both teams, both records for the All-Star game.

Trout joined a group of five that have won the All-Star game MVP twice: Willie Mays, Steve Garvey, Gary Carter and Cal Ripken Jr. were the four to previously achieve the feat. Trout also won the American League season MVP in 2014.

“He can hit with power. He can run. He can drive the gap. He’s a great defender,” Yost said of Trout. “He’s just special. When you look at Mike, you don’t look at a 23-year old. You look at a guy that is one of the best baseball players on the this planet.”

The American League has captured 21 of the last 28 All-Star games but won’t have an American League team host the game in any of the next three years.  In 2016 and 2018 the game will played in a National League park but have the AL bat last to provide equality to the arrangement.