It's nice to see some pitchers struggle in a Major League Baseball All-Star Game. They usually dominate the best hitters in the game, but last night, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez -- two of the top closers in the game -- gave up a couple runs, walked the bases loaded, and had a chance to lose the game for the American League.

They didn't lose it, but it was close: 5-4.

I was disappointed in several defensive efforts, including Torii Hunter's non-dive on a bloop he usually catches.

It made me happy to see Alex Rodriguez play poorly, lounging enough to let a bad hop turn into a double and getting thrown out by a million miles at the plate by the real best player in baseball, Ken Griffey Jr.

Ichiro Suzuki almost disappointed, too, as he posed for his home run that hit the wall. Griffey might have limited Ichiro to a single or double, but the speedster from Seattle turned a funky carrom into the first-ever inside-the-parker in the 78-year history of the MLB All-Star Game.

Anyway, overall the lackluster play (i.e. no hustle, lazy errors) was not what I wanted to see. The exciting game made up for it a bit.