SAN DIEGO -- Eric Hosmer stood in the middle of the field, holding up a trophy. He hopes to do it again with the Kansas City Royals this fall.Hosmer and Salvador Perez homered off former Kansas City teammate Johnny Cueto during a six-pitch span in the second inning, Hosmer added an RBI single to become MVP of the All-Star Game and the American League beat the Nationals 4-2 Tuesday night for its fourth straight win.If the defending champion Royals reach the World Series for the third straight year, they will start at home, sweet, home once again.Hopefully this is something we can all rally upon for the second half and find a way to use that home-field advantage, Hosmer said.David Ortiz found himself in the middle of the most touching moment at Petco Park, embraced by his AL teammates near first base after exiting his final All-Star Game. The popular Big Papi plans to retire at 40 after this season with Boston.Kris Bryant of the Cubs led the parade of sparkling young talent with a first-inning home run. The Yankees Dellin Betances flashed his 100 mph heat, and Astros reliever Will Harris came on to throw a called third strike past Cardinals rookie Aledmys Diaz on a 3-2 pitch on the outside corner with the bases loaded to end the eighth.Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera pitched a hitless sixth for the AL, which will open the Series at home for the 11th time in 14 years since the All-Star winner has been used to determine the hosts for Games 1 and 2.Kansas City became baseball royalty last fall, bursting to a 2-0 lead over the New York Mets at Kauffman Stadium, where Cueto pitched a two-hitter in the second game. The Royals won in five games for their first title since 1985.This year, Kansas City is languishing at 45-43, seven games off the AL Central lead and in the middle of the wild-card race.We know how much that home-field advantage helped us, Hosmer said. It just brings that sense of comfort to the team and gives you a jumpstart for the whole Series.The team with home field has won the World Series six of the last seven times and 24 of the past 30.Clevelands Corey Kluber pitched a 1-2-3 second inning for the win, and Zach Britton induced Nolan Arenados game-ending, double-play grounder for the save as the AL cut its deficit to 43-42 with two ties. The NL has outscored the AL overall, 360-359.Ortiz wore spikes with gold-colored bottoms and matching batting gloves to mark his 10th All-Star selection and delivered the AL batting order to umpires at home plate.He gave a pregame pep talk to his teammates, hit a smash down the first-base line that Anthony Rizzo snagged to rob him of a potential RBI double in the first and walked against Jose Fernandez in the third.When Edwin Encarnacion came out to pinch run for him, Ortiz waved to the crowd and then spent his AL teammates came out of the dugout to exchange hugs as the crowd of 42,386 rose in tribute.I was supposed to hit a home run in my second at-bat. My boy told me he was going to throw me a fastball, and the first pitch was a changeup, Ortiz said.Then 3-2 he threw me a slider and Im like, `Are you trying to break my back? But he said it was the catchers fault.Fernandez admitted, I couldnt believe that I was actually pitching to him. We both looked at each other and smiled.He signed the jersey I brought for him, the 23-year-old Miami Marlins ace said.The All-Star Game returned to San Diego for the first time since 1992 at Jack Murphy Stadium. Just before this first pitch, commissioner Rob Manfred joined Rod Carew, his family and the family of late Padres great Tony Gwynn and named the batting titles after the two Hall of Famers, giving Gwynn the NL honor and Carew the AL championship.Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer two years ago at age 54.Sailors dressed in white lined the foul lines and outfield warning tracks for the national anthems. The Tenors, a British Columbia-based group, changed an O Canada lyric to Were all brothers and sisters. All lives matter to the great, and one held up a sign reading All Lives Matter.Randy Jones threw out the ceremonial first pitch and former Padres All-Star closer Trevor Hoffman helped open, bringing the game ball to the mound from the bullpen accompanied by AC/DCs Hells Bells.With an NL ballpark hosting for the second year in a row in a streak of at least four, the AL wore white uniforms, hit last and used the Padres clubhouse on the first-base side. Ball boys in retro-style mustard-and-mud Padres uniforms lent a San Diego feel to Petco, which opened in 2004.There was a home run on the games fourth pitch for the second straight year; Bryant connected on a 96 mph Chris Sale fastball with two outs as hitters swung early in the count to beat the shadows creeping in from the left-field corner in the late-afternoon start.Bryant was part of an all-Cubs infield -- the first starting infield quartet from a single team since the 1963 St. Louis Cardinals.I think a lot of us were looking first pitch, said Bryant, who played college ball for the University of San Diego. A lot of pitchers are coming into the game trying to light up the radar gun a bit.That was the highlight for the NL Central-leading Cubs, whose fan base was pumped up by a fast start and dreams of the teams first title since 1908.Mike Trout, the All-Star MVP in 2014 and `15, singled in the first for a five-All-Star Game hitting streak -- only Mickey Mantle, Joe Morgan and Dave Winfield (seven each) and Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Nellie Fox (six apiece) strung together more.The lead was short-lived, with Hosmer and Perez going deep for a 3-1 lead in the second, sandwiched around Mookie Betts single. Cueto was hard to miss in the center of the field, wearing lime green and orange spikes.This morning I got up and didnt feel well. That is not an excuse, Cueto said. I just left two pitches up, and that was the story.Hosmer, the first Kansas City player to homer in an All-Star Game since Bo Jackson in 1989, made it 4-1 in the third against Fernandez with a one-hopper off Bryants left arm that bounced into left field for an RBI single. Marcell Ozuna cut the gap with a run-scoring single off Aaron Sanchez in the fourth.When it was over, Hosmer said he was giving the midnight black truck he earned with the MVP award to his dad, Michael, who stood off to the side.So he can stop stealing all my cars, Eric said. Cory Schneider Jersey . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos. Pavel Zacha Jersey . Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. 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It had taken them less than 20 minutes to reach the ground from their hotel, driving mostly on roads emptied for what is locally called VIP movement.There wasnt too much fuss after their arrival as they smoothly went about their business at the National Cricket Academy ground, a plush facility that has several practice pitches and a rectangular outfield. England began their warm-up while their stand-in captain Jos Buttler went to his first press conference on tour. As the nets were being drawn up and the batsmen got padded up, assistant coach Paul Farbrace sized up the net bowlers, who nearly outnumbered the England entourage. Buttler said this is exactly what he and the team had been looking forward to - the cricket.Security is paramount when traveling to the subcontinent but we are always looked after well, Buttler said. Obviously there is a lot of security but thats part and parcel of making the tour okay. Thankfully, now we are here. We will start practicing today and start thinking about cricket. I think those things will go back into the background. It will be a very competitive series.I think today we start training and start gearing up for the matches. Bangladesh have been playing well in their own conditions. We need to be prepared. All we want to do is play cricket. Once we start, it will be very refreshing to start talking about the cricket side of things.This is Buttlers fourth tour to Bangladesh, having come here earlier with the England Under-19 in 2009, England Lions in 2012 and the senior team during the 2014 World T20.dddddddddddd. He said that the challenge would be for the batsmen to survive the tricky early period of every innings which would reveal the nature of the pitch. He added, though, that while adjusting to conditions they would not lose their attacking team persona.It would be a good challenge for the guys, Buttler said. We had a series in Dubai last winter on those pitches in which we played well. We have to learn to adapt and win in all conditions. We still want to be aggressive and bat as fast as we can, but conditions will dictate.From previous experience, I think it takes 10 or 15 balls. If you can get through that period, then you start to get used to the pace of the pitch and the timing. Rotation of the strike, and boundaries may be tougher to come by. We will play our brand of cricket but we will adjust it to conditions.Buttler said that playing against Bangladesh would be a major challenge, given how confident they are playing at home. They have now won six ODI series in a row at home since November 2014, and have developed several match-winners along the way.We will be playing against a confident team in their own conditions. If you look at the makeup of the Bangladesh side, their spinners have been doing well. We will be ready to get used to the conditions. We are focused on ourselves and what we need to prepare. We are a young athletic team and I will want us to play in the same way. ' ' '
