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SEATTLE — For the first time since 2017, the Diamondbacks had four representatives at the All-Star game. All of them — outfielder Corbin Carroll, starting pitcher Zac Gallen, outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo — were first-timers. And predictably, they all had a hell of a time.
When asked what he enjoyed most about his All-Star experience after the game, Perdomo was quick to answer: his two at-bats, which resulted in a fly out and a walk.
Somehow, what happens on the field at the All-Star game seems to mean everything and nothing at the same time. More than anything, it is about the opportunity to play on baseball’s brightest midseason stage.
“That was my first time,” Perdomo said. “I don’t know when God’s going to put me here again. So, I just need to be healthy and maybe next year, maybe in a few more years, come back and play this game again.”
Perdomo emphasized how hungry he is to return to the midsummer classic soon.
“I’m always hungry, but for this experience? I need to be.”
Carroll had a similarly uneventful day at the plate. He went 0-for-2, rolling over the top of a Nathan Eovaldi cutter in the second inning and striking out in the fifth.
He was also one of baseball’s best stories throughout the All-Star festivities: a 22-year-old kid born and raised in Seattle, poetically returning to his hometown to start the All-Star game in his rookie season.
“Amazing,” Carroll said about his All-Star experience. “Dreams come true. I really enjoyed it. Tried to just soak it all in. It was a great Seattle day. The fans were all into it. I got to meet some really cool teammates. Couldn’t have asked for more.”
Carroll’s experience was quite different from his teammates. As the hometown hero — and a budding superstar — he was the only Diamondbacks player to be mic’d up for a portion of the broadcast.
Being asked to mic up for the broadcast is an honor in and of itself, but it also presents its challenges. Playing defense while trying to hold a conversation on national television does not seem easy.
“It was alright, it was alright,” Carroll said. “I’ve actually said no to that a couple of times during the season, but I was like, ‘It’s the All-Star game.’ Just tried to stay loose and have fun with it.”
Carroll used the opportunity to shout out Diamondbacks teammates and coach Dave McKay.
Carroll’s journey to the All-Star game was remarkable in many ways. On top of being a 22-year-old making an unprecedented start in the All-Star game, he also suffered what appeared to be a significant shoulder injury less than a week ago.
When it first happened, in fact, Carroll thought his season was over. Nonetheless, the D-backs outfielder stayed level-headed throughout the process, as he always seems to do. The possibility of having his hometown All-Star game taken away just made him that much more excited for the opportunity.
“Just really grateful to be here,” he said. “This is probably going to be the most memorable one that I ever have with it being in Seattle. Just grateful.”
Suffice it to say that, however, that while Carroll enjoyed his experience, his All-Star “break” was not much of a break at all.
Fortunately, Carroll will get some actual time off now over the next two days before the Diamondbacks start the second half of their season on Friday in Toronto.
“It’s been all good things,” Carroll said, “but I’ve been running around since I got here, doing all sorts of cool different stuff, meeting all sorts of people, got to meet some fans. Now, I’ll have a little while to relax here and soak it all in with friends that I haven’t seen yet.”
Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen is widely known as cerebral and hyper-competitive — the kind of guy who keeps meticulous records of hitter tendencies and preserves them so he can refer back years after the fact.
As the starting pitcher for the National League, Gallen still let that side of him shine through.
“[Diamondbacks pitching strategist] Dan Haren wrote a report for me,” he said. “Very brief, but pretty much similar to what I get before [regular season games], for the first four guys.
“I feel like I got to my routine pretty much the same as normal. There were some parts of the day where I kind of got in and out, but for the most part. I’d say about 85 percent.”
Gallen faced no small task as the starting pitcher. Due up in the first inning were Texas Rangers slugger Marcus Semien, Los Angeles Angels megastar Shohei Ohtani and Tampa Bay Rays spark-plug Randy Arozarena.
Unsurprisingly, Ohtani drew a roar from the Seattle crowd, including a round of “Come to Seattle” chants amid reports that Ohtani has spent offseason time in the area.
“The place was going nuts,” Gallen said. “I was like, ‘Man, if I serve up a homer to this guy, this whole place is going to erupt.’ [Atlanta Braves catcher Sean Murphy] called the curveball. It was a good call obviously, and tried to make a good pitch.”
Gallen did exactly that, striking out baseball’s best player.
Granted, it is not as if Gallen has not struck out Ohtani before. He actually struck out Ohtani twice when the D-backs played the Angels on July 2. This one, however, was different.
“I’ll probably find the clip on Twitter or somewhere,” he said.
For as great as Gallen was in his one scoreless inning, no Diamondbacks player got more attention for his on-field performance than Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
After entering the game in the fifth inning as a defensive substitution, Gurriel torched a hanging slider from Toronto Blue Jays righty Jordan Romano nearly 400 feet down the left-field line. It was originally ruled fair, and it appeared that Gurriel had tied the game.
Several minutes later, the call was overturned.
“I had no idea you could challenge here in the All-Star game,” Gurriel said after the game.
Regardless, Perdomo was convinced that it should not have been overturned.
“That was a homer for sure,” he said. “That was a homer for sure. I don’t know why they challenged it, but that was a homer for sure. That was sad.”
Ultimately, the National League came back to win the game anyway, thanks to a two-run, go-ahead homer by Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Diaz. The darnedest things happen at All-Star games.
This one was an experience that none of the four Diamondbacks representatives will ever forget.
“I was smiling the whole game,” Perdomo said. “That was amazing. I can’t express it.”
Follow Jesse Friedman on Twitter
Top photo: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
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