National League vs. American League prediction and odds for 2023 MLB All-Star Game
By Josh Yourish
The Midsummer Classic is here as the National League and American League will square off at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Tuesday night. Last year, the AL took a 3-2 win behind Giancarlo Stanton who was named the games MVP. Stanton won’t be in Seattle this year to defend his MVP title.
The American League will be led by Shohei Ohtani along with Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, and George Kirby, the three representatives of the hosts, the Seattle Mariners. The National League delegation is loaded with Braves and Dodgers will MVP favorite Ronald Acuna Jr. and Mookie Betts in the starting outfield.
Let’s get into the odds and see if the AL can defend their crown… again.
MLB All-Star Game odds, run line and total
MLB All-Star Game prediction and pick
The NL hasn't won in nine years, that’s a long time and a lot of great National League players have come and gone since then. Thankfully, the game no longer determines home field in the World Series, the worst idea ever, because the AL hosted the Fall Classic plenty of times because of the result of the Midsummer Classic.
It’s honestly very hard to find a reason why the AL has been so dominant in that stretch. Perhaps it’s because that league had the designated hitter long before the NL did and that meant there were more power bats in that league? There could be some validity to that theory because the NL won in 1994, 95, and 96, but since 1997 the AL is 21-3-1 in the All-Star game.
If the DH is the reason then that should be correcting itself by now, but the AL still snuck out a 3-2 win last year because of DH Giancarlo Stanton. The AL leads the series all time, 47-43-2. It’s a streak of utter dominance this century so I would feel good about taking the AL based on that trend, but there is a better trend to back and has clear logic to it.
No matter how great hitters get, great pitching always wins out. Especially when the best arms in baseball can throw 99 mph for seven innings all year and then in the All-Star game only need to get three outs. The total is set at 7.5 for this game and the All-Star game has gone under that total 11 times since 2006. That’s a record of 11-5 to the under. The American League trend is longer and stronger, but this trend is actually rooted in sound logic. It’s 3-0 in the last three years, so let’s take the under.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change