Scioscia's strategy worked to perfection

True to his word, Mike Scioscia managed to win, not to keep all his players happy.

Turns out, he did both.

Scioscia apologized in advance to players who might not get in the game. Not everyone did play and some didn't play too long.

But the strategy of saving players for key matchups late in the game helped secure a 7-6 victory Tuesday night by the American League in the All-Star game, giving the AL the home field advantage in the World Series once again this fall.

No strategic move worked more perfectly for Scioscia than keeping his Anaheim Angels starting third baseman and right-handed hitter, Troy Glaus, in the lineup until the bottom of the eighth inning.

When National League manager Dusty Baker sent in right-hander Eric Gagne to start the eighth, after one inning by left-hander Billy Wagner, Scioscia made his key move.

After doubles by Melvin Mora and Vernon Wells scored a run to draw the AL to 6-5, Scioscia sent in left-handed hitting Hank Blalock to pinch-hit for Glaus.

Blalock responded on cue, whacking a 427-foot homer into the right field stands for a 7-6 lead.

"It worked out perfectly," Scioscia said.

He said he apologized again to the players who didn't get in the game.

"They understood," he said, "because we had talked about it before the game. All those guys had slots coming up if the game had gone on or if we had to bat in the ninth."

There were, as Scioscia said, "a lot of little subtleties" that made this All-Star game, with its higher stakes, more compelling than those of the recent past.

"At times, I think we were more conscious of late-inning matchups than we might have been if it was more of an exhibition game, and that's one reason why I think Hank appeared so late in the game. I could get him matched up against one of the other guys."

Both teams played with greater intensity, reflecting the way Scioscia and Baker approached the game.

"I think most of it has to do with personalities and the philosophies of Dusty and Mike," NL coach Tony La Russa said late in the game. "These guys are competitors and winners. They don't want to lose. I think both of them are really thinking about the pride of the league."

Baker kept his starting position players in through the fourth inning, rather than letting them duck out to their private planes after nominal two-at-bat, three-inning appearances. That helped the NL rack up a five-run rally in the fifth that looked for a while as if it might be good enough to win.

Armed with deeper pitching staffs this year, both managers changed pitchers often, taking out starters Esteban Loaiza of the AL and Jason Schmidt of the NL after two scoreless innings each.

Roger Clemens, a late and controversial sub for Barry Zito, contributed one scoreless inning in the third, just before Ichiro Suzuki gave the AL a 1-0 lead by scoring after a walk, a wild pitch and a single by Carlos Delgado.

Scioscia pulled Shigetoshi Hasegawa after two outs in the fifth when he gave up a walk, a homer and two singles.

Scioscia's intensity showed in the fifth inning when he got into a rare All-Star game argument with an umpire. Scioscia lost the debate about whether a runner, Rafael Furcal, should have been allowed to score from first on a ground-rule double by Andruw Jones that was touched by a fan as Furcal approached third. But winning or losing that dispute mattered less than making the point to his players and the fans that he was taking this game very seriously.

Blalock watched and waited impatiently, knowing he might not play, but hoping he would.

"If I'm not in the starting lineup, I'm always antsy to get in the game," Blalock said. "They told me since about the fourth or fifth inning, always be ready to go in for third base. I was just kind of staying loose and ended up getting called on, obviously, in the bottom of the eighth."

Scioscia's patience paid off, and once again he got the better of Baker, just he did in the World Series last fall when the Angels beat Baker's San Francisco Giants. The Angels had the home field advantage for that seven-game series, and if they get that far again, they'll have it once more.

The All-Star experiment, in place this year and next, might not be the best way to decide who gets the edge in baseball's Fall Classic. But for one balmy night, it turned this memorable Midsummer Classic into one that mattered.

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.