Pitchers’ duel: Jimenez, Price start strong, keeping All-Star game scoreless after 3 innings

All-Star game scoreless after 3 innings

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez and Tampa Bay’s David Price opened the 81st All-Star game with two sharp innings apiece, and baseball’s midsummer classic was scoreless after three innings Tuesday night.

Evan Longoria’s second-inning double was the only extra-base hit at sun-splashed Angel Stadium, where the NL hoped a roster loaded with pitching talent would end the league’s 13-game winless skid.

After Price held the NL to one hit and Jimenez allowed just two, Yankees veteran Andy Pettitte and Florida’s Josh Johnson each threw a scoreless inning as well.

The star pitchers got help from the game’s 5 p.m. local start time, leaving a band of sunlight between the shadows on the mound and plate shortly before the first pitch. The resulting twilight conditions left several hitters blinking at the poor visibility.

“It is tough to see,” AL manager Joe Girardi said during a TV interview. “Until these shadows going away, it’s going to be tough to see.”

Or maybe the pitchers were just that good in a baseball season featuring a wealth of superb pitching.

With home-field advantage in the World Series on the line once again, the NL was looking for its first All-Star victory since 1996.

Price, at 24 the youngest All-Star starting pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 1988, cracked 97 mph on Angel Stadium’s radar gun during a 1-2-3 first inning.

Jimenez earned the NL’s starting spot with a 15-1 start to the season. In the first inning, he walked Derek Jeter, who advanced to third on Miguel Cabrera’s single before Texas cleanup hitter Josh Hamilton ended the inning on a double-play grounder.

Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria had a busy second inning, starting a double play for the AL on defense moments before hitting a one-out double off the left-field wall. Longoria is from Downey, a 20-minute drive from Angel Stadium, and played for the Dirtbags at nearby Long Beach State.

Angels teammates Torii Hunter and Jered Weaver got the biggest rounds of applause during pregame introductions. Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who was next in line for introductions, jokingly stepped out of line and soaked up some of Hunter’s cheers before getting the expected boos that greeted every member of the world champions, who knocked the Angels out in the AL championship series last season.

Vladimir Guerrero, who left Anaheim last winter after six seasons with the Angels, also got a long ovation which he acknowledged with a tip of his cap when he was introduced as the AL’s No. 5 hitter. Guerrero, who has rejuvenated his career with the Texas Rangers, is occupying his old locker in the Angels’ home clubhouse.

George Steinbrenner was honored with a moment of silence and a scoreboard video tribute. The longtime Yankees owner died Tuesday morning, and his players wore black armbands on the left sleeves of their pinstripes.