Minnesota Twins Byron Buxton Lifts AL To All-Star Game Win

LOS ANGELES -- The first All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in 42 years featured Clayton Kershaw starting in front of the home fans and appearances from Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera, but the final score looked all too familiar: The American League won 3-2 for its ninth straight All-Star victory and 21st in the past 25 Midsummer Classics.

The game turned in the fourth inning when Giancarlo Stanton and Byron Buxton delivered back-to-back home runs off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Tony Gonsolin. Neither was cheated with his swing. Stanton's game-tying two-run shot was a 457-foot blast to left-center -- longer than any home run hit at Dodger Stadium in the first half of the season. Buxton followed with a 425-foot shot down the left-field line, the seventh time in All-Star history with back-to-back home runs.

Buxton admired Stanton's home run from the on-deck circle.

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"That's probably one of the hardest balls I've seen hit from the on-deck circle," Buxton said. "I don't even know if you can put it in words how hard he hit the baseball. So for me to see him in person, be on the same team, finally be up close, it was like, 'Wow.' You know, like, I literally sat down. ... He crushed that."

As Buxton stepped to the plate, he said he thought: "I ain't matching that."

He came close.

Minnesota Twins return to action Saturday beginning a 7-game road trip in Detroit then onto Milwaukee and a trip to the west coast to face San Diego.

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Filed Under: Byron Buxton, Clayton Kershaw, Dodger Stadium, Giancarlo Stanton, Minnesota Twins, MLB All Star Game

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