Burnes, Peralta anchor Brewers at ASG

DENVER -- It’s not the history a pitcher wants a part of, but hey, is there such thing as the wrong end of a trivia question when it relates to playing in the All-Star Game?

Brewers starter Corbin Burnes surrendered the 200th home run in All-Star Game history -- and the longest homer in a Midsummer Classic since Statcast started tracking in 2015. It came on a 468-foot solo shot by Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third inning that gave the American League a two-run lead en route to its 5-2 victory at Coors Field.

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From Burnes’ reaction on the mound and the way Fernando Tatis Jr. put his hands on his head at shortstop, you knew it was a no-doubter. The baseball departed Guerrero’s bat at 110.2 mph and flew 468 feet to left field -- 58 feet further than Kris Bryant’s long ball in 2016 in San Diego.

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“We were just going out there trying to have fun,” Burnes said after he was charged with two earned runs on four hits and a walk in two innings of relief of National League starter Max Scherzer. “We managed to throw a lot of pitches. Obviously, everyone wants to see the cutter, so that was kind of the thing tonight: Go out and throw a bunch of cutters.

“The one pitch to Vlad there was a slider that backed up a little bit. It could have been one of those Colorado sliders that got hit pretty good. But he’s a good hitter.”

That’s an understatement. Guerrero is neck and neck with Angels two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani in the race for the AL MVP Award, leading the Majors at the break with a .332 average and a 1.089 OPS. Only Ohtani (33 home runs) has hit more homers than Guerrero (28) this season.

That moment aside, Burnes also had flashes in which he showed why he’s a critical piece of the Brewers’ trio of top starters with fellow All-Stars Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta. After walking Aaron Judge to begin his outing, Burnes surrendered a chopper to Rafael Devers that bounced over first baseman Freddie Freeman’s head for a double, then a run-scoring infield single to Marcus Semien on a slow grounder along the third-base line. Burnes, though, limited the damage by striking out Salvador Perez with a slider -- the first of Burnes’ two strikeouts -- and getting Teoscar Hernández to ground into an inning-ending double play.

In the third inning, Burnes struck out AL hits leader Cedric Mullins of the Orioles and got Ohtani to ground out before Guerrero went deep. Burnes navigated the rest of the inning without any more runs and his first All-Star experience was in the books.

“It’s just been awesome being around the other guys,” Burnes said during batting practice. “These are some of the best in the game, and they have been for a long time. So getting to talk to Max and Freddie, some of these guys who have [had] multiple, multiple All-Star appearances, it’s been pretty special.”

Two of those guys are teammates. Josh Hader was on his third All-Star Game roster, and Woodruff his second. Burnes, Peralta and catcher Omar Narváez were among the record 42 first-time All-Stars.

Peralta delivered the Brewers’ best highlight of the night, striking out the side on 12 pitches in a perfect seventh inning. His catcher was Narváez, who grounded out in his first All-Star Game at-bat in the bottom of that inning before reaching on an infield single to start the ninth. Hader didn’t pitch after appearing four times in the five days leading into the break, and Woodruff was ineligible by rule after starting Sunday’s game for the Brewers.

Now, it’s back to work. The Brewers reached the break in first place in the NL Central, four games up on second-place Cincinnati, with a three-game series on tap at Great American Ball Park to start the second half.

Milwaukee has yet to announce its pitching plans for that series, pending players’ appearances in the All-Star Game, but it’s a good bet that it will be some combination of Peralta, Woodruff and Burnes.

“I think we were kind of the underrated team in the NL Central to start the year,” Burnes said. “We knew what we had as a pitching staff, and even that offense. In Spring Training, in some of the meetings we had, it was, ‘Just do what we do, execute pitches, and we know that we can be at the top of the league.' We did a good job of that in the first half and the goal is to keep focusing on our routine and keep doing what we’re doing.”

If they keep pitching like this, the Brewers should be in the race to the end. They’ve made the postseason in each of the past three seasons, a franchise record.

“I think it just shows the development of our organization, how hard our guys have worked,” Hader said. “There’s a long process to that. Having all of us at the same time finally come together and figure out ourselves, it’s incredible. And they knew that would happen.”