2024 MLB All-Star Game Odds, Prediction: American League opens as betting favourite

The American League team is a short favourite to win on the MLB odds, with the total set at 7.5 runs.

Betting Analysis

All 30 teams will have at least one All-Star for Tuesday night’s game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. It’s the first time that park hosts as it’s one of the newest stadiums in MLB. A different stadium in Arlington hosted the 1995 Midsummer Classic with the National League winning 3-2. Because an American League park is the host, the AL is the home team.

The Junior Circuit leads the all-time series 47-44-2 but had a nine-game winning streak – second-longest in this event by either team – snapped last year in a 3-2 loss in Seattle. Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Diaz was the game’s MVP, only the seventh catcher all-time to win it. Diaz, the first-ever Rockies catcher in the game, hit a two-run go-ahead homer in the eighth inning off Baltimore’s Felix Bautista.

The National League tries to win back-to-back All-Star Games for the first time since winning three straight from 2010-12. Back-to-back All-Star Games have now been decided by just one run. Three straight haven’t been decided by a run since four in a row from 2006-09.

National League

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo is the manager of the NL All-Star team for the first time and he made a lot of MLB fans happy – and no doubt the TV executives at FOX, which televises the game in the United States – by naming Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes as the starting pitcher. It’s well-deserved but also almost by default because of some minor injuries to other candidates such as Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suarez or due to guys starting on Sunday, which rules them out, such as Atlanta’s Chris Sale.

Skenes will become the first Pirates pitcher in nearly 50 years to start the All-Star Game and just the fifth overall rookie pitcher to ever start it and first since Hideo Nomo in 1995. Skenes is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in his first 11 big-league starts. Those are tied for the fewest career starts for an All-Star starter since Detroit rookie Mark Fidrych in 1976. The Phillies have the majors’ best record and set a franchise mark with seven All-Stars originally. Three of them will start in first baseman Bryce Harper, shortstop Trea Turner and third baseman Alec Bohm.

American League

Several guys have had to pull out of the All-Star Game due to minor injury, etc., and it seems like the AL has been hit harder. For example, second baseman and future Hall of Famer Jose Altuve of the Astros won’t be able to play with a hand issue. Altuve, selected to his ninth All-Star Game, hasn’t played in the game since 2018. He has been replaced in the starting lineup by the Rangers’ Marcus Semien, a former Blue Jay. On Sunday night, Twins shortstop Carlos Correa had to be replaced on the roster by Texas’ Corey Seager.

The Blue Jays are having a disappointing season and have just one All-Star: Starting first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It’s his fourth consecutive All-Star selection, tying the longest career streak by his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. He is also the seventh player in Blue Jays history with at least four selections. Guerrero Jr. was the 2021 All-Star Game MVP in Denver. He opted not to defend his Home Run Derby title, however. The Rangers’ Bruce Bochy is the AL manager and picked Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes as his starting pitcher. It’s the first ASG start for Burnes, a former NL Cy Young Award winner. This is his first career season in the AL.