1986 Major League Baseball All-Star Game - Game

Game

Wally Joyner was the first rookie to be elected to the starting team of an All-Star squad by the fans and the fifteenth rookie overall to actually start in a Midsummer Classic but the evening belonged to Roger Clemens. Roger Clemens made his All-Star Game debut and the game was held in his home state of Texas. With help from Ted Higuera, Charlie Hough, Dave Righetti and Don Aase, Clemens shut down the National League and started his record setting All-Star Game career.

Clemens pitched three perfect innings, had no hits allowed and no walks allowed, which included only three balls and twenty-one strikes, against the formidable National League lineup earning him the All-Star Most Valuable Player Award. The National League pitching staff stuck out twelve batters, a total equaled only three times before in All-Star History: 1934 All-Star Game, 1956 All-Star Game and 1959 All-Star Game .

In the second inning, Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker followed a Dave Winfield double with a homer off Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden. In the fourth inning, Fernando Valenzuela had five consecutive strikeouts. This tied him with the All Star record set during the 1934 All-Star Game by Carl Hubbell. Valenzuela struck out Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken, Jr., Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker and fellow Mexican Teddy Higuera. In the seventh inning, Frank White pinch-hit for Lou Whitaker and hit an 0-2 pitch from Astros pitcher Mike Scott over the wall. White became the 14th player in the history of the All-Star Game to have a pinch hit Home Run. The last player to do so was Lee Mazzilli at the 1979 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The National League made it interesting in the bottom of the eighth by roughing up Rangers pitcher Charlie Hough for two runs. In the ninth, the National League had runners at first and third with one out when Don Aase got Chris Brown to hit a check-swing grounder for a double play.