Baseball’s brightest stars including an electric 21-year-old rookie sensation from Seattle dazzled in the 2022 MLB All-Star festivities in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.

All Star week featured the Home Run Derby, All Star Game and the Futures Game.

The Futures Game is a game consisting of the top 50 minor league players competing together.

The Home Run Derby consists of eight players who were seeded based on their homers so far this season. They competed in a one-on-one single elimination bracket to determine the winner.

The first and most intriguing first-round matchup was Corey Seager vs. Julio Rodriguez. Seager had hit 21 homers while Rodriguez had hit 16 in 2022. Rodriguez defeated Seager 32-24. The 32 first-round homers for Rodriguez is the second most in a first-round ever, trailing the 35 of two-time defending champion Pete Alonso last season. Rodriguez is the Seattle Mariners’ young star who has been turning heads all season long. Rodriguez is a two-time Rookie of the Month and recently hit the Mariners’ first grand slam of the season and the first grand slam of his career against Seager’s Texas Rangers.

Albert Pujols, 42, ranks in the top 10 all-time in home runs. As a legacy selection to the 2022 All-Star Game, he beat Kyle Schwarber, who had hit more home runs in 2022 (29) then anyone else in the derby. Pujols had only hit six so far this season but put on a show. Pujols defeated Schwarberer in the first round 20-19 after the contest went into a one-minute extra time after they were tied following the allotted three minutes.

The two-time Home Run Derby champion Alonso faced NL East rival, Ronald Acuna Jr. Alonso defeated Acuna Jr. 20-19 and advanced to the second round.

The four-five matchup saw Juan Soto vs. Jose Ramirez. Soto has 19 homers while Ramirez has 17. Soto defeated Ramirez 18-17.

The second round of the Home Run Derby saw Rodriguez competing against two-time defending champ Alonso. Rodriguez went first and hit 31 homers, his second 30+ home run round of the competition, the first time a player had ever hit 30 or more home runs in multiple rounds in Home Run Derby history, according to MLB.com

Rodriguez proved too powerful, and Alonso only hit 22 homers and congratulated Rodriguez as he advanced to the final. The next semi-final matchup was Pujols against Soto. Pujols led with 15 homers and after a slow start from Soto, he picked it up and defeated Pujols 16-15 to advance to the final.

In the final, Rodriguez got off to a decent start, but a few missed homers and not reaching the full one-minute bonus really hurt him as he hit 18 homers. Soto got off to a slow start once again, but a flurry of homers and the full one-minute bonus time gave him the edge, and the 23 year-old won 19-18.

The All-Star Game took place Tuesday. The game consisted of players from the National and American leagues with 39 players on each team including one legacy player per team. On the American League side, the team is headlined by Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Rodriguez (the only rookie competing in the game) and legacy selection Miguel Cabrera.

After a feverous PR campaign from the Mariners to get fans to vote for Ty France to start the All-Star Game came to a halt when France was not selected at all, France was added to the American League reserves after Trout could not participate in the game because of an injury. Justin Verlander, Ohtani and Gerrit Cole headline the starting pitchers for the American League.

In the American League, Cole is the only Pac-12 representative. Cole is from Newport Beach, Calif. and played college baseball for the UCLA Bruins.

The National League team was headlined by Manny Machado, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and legacy selection Pujols. Notable starting pitchers were Clayton Kershaw and Max Fried.

National League reserve C.J. Cron, who was born in Fullerton, Calif. played college baseball for the Utah Utes. Reliever Tyler Anderson, born in Las Vegas played his college ball with the Oregon Ducks. Bryce Harper is on the National League roster but did not play due to injury.

The Toronto Blue Jays had six players on the American League roster. The Angels had two, the New York Yankees had four players, the Mariners had two and the Houston Astros had five players. The National League roster is dominated by the Dodgers with five players. The Atlanta Braves had six players and the Milwaukee Brewers had three players.

The American League won the All-Star game 3-2 after the National League got off to a hot start. Shane McClanahan was the American League starting pitcher, and in his inning of action he gave up four hits and two runs with one strikeout. Acuna Jr., Betts, Turner and Paul Goldschmidt all got hits in the first inning and the two RBIs came from Betts and Goldschmidt.

After two scoreless innings from both sides, the American League got on the board and took the lead. Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer to tie the game and was immediately followed by a solo homer from Byron Buxton to take the 3-2 lead.

The National League could not answer back, and only produced one hit in the other eight innings combined and fell to the American League 3-2.

Mariners Rodriguez and France both played for the American League team. Rodriguez went 0-2 batting and France went 0-1. Rodriguez had a few catches in center field, one while speaking with Fox’s commentators and France saw some action at first base.

The MVP of the All-Star Game was Stanton for his two-run homer in the fourth to tie the game. Stanton is from Panorama City in Los Angeles and grew up a Dodgers fan and loved going to games with his father. Stanton got his start in the MLB in 2010 when he was drafted by then-Florida, now Miami Marlins where he played for them until 2017 when he joined the New York Yankees.

The Los Angeles fans packed the stadium and were loud and cheerful the entire night. The players seemed to be enjoying themselves and were seen taking pictures in the dugout and talking to the announcers in the middle of the game through headphones which produced quality television moments.

The 2023 All-Star Game will be held in Seattle in July 2023 The Seattle Mariners will unveil their 2023 All-Star Game logo on Friday during their game against the Astros.