Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong doubles off Yankees’ Carlos Rodon in first All-Star at-bat

ATLANTA — You like a good first inning? The 95th All-Star Game delivered a heck of a good first inning.

It included Pirates sensation Paul Skenes retiring Yankees superstar Aaron Judge to complete a dominant, fastball-filled top half; the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani sparking a two-run rally with a base hit off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the bottom of the frame; “FRED-DIE!” chants for the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, a World Series-winning Brave; and the Midsummer Classic’s first-ever “robot” reversal, with the Padres’ Manny Machado taking a strikeout after the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system did its thing.

Baseball’s ongoing ABS experiment was one of the topics of the week, and it certainly worked in this case. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh caught a pitch from Skubal that was called a ball and immediately tapped his helmet to initiate a challenge that took mere seconds; all of the ball had the lower part of the strike zone. Skubal laughed when he saw a computerized image of it on the outfield scoreboard. National League manager Dave Roberts cracked up, too, as Machado walked back to the bench.

PCA does his thing

You like a good first All-Star at-bat? Pete Crow-Armstrong definitely enjoyed his, doubling to right on a 1-0 slider from Yankees lefty Carlos Rodon — formerly of the White Sox — in the second inning.

Crow-Armstrong played five innings in the first of what he hopes will be many All-Star appearances. It was a strong response after a hectic beginning, when he was “honestly just getting distracted every couple of milliseconds” during pregame introductions.

He got a big reception in the dugout after his hit, even though he didn’t score.

“There were a lot of high-fives,” he said. “High-fives were fun.”

And he was especially glad for the knock off Rodon, who shut out the Cubs for eight innings Friday at Yankee Stadium.

“He diced against us, so I was mostly just happy for that,” Crow-Armstrong said. “But it’s nice getting that [first hit] out of the way and giving an opportunity to someone else.”

Miz biz

Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski hit 102 mph in a scoreless eighth inning, rounding out his surprising inclusion as a replacement player after having started only five games in the majors. Commissioner Rob Manfred defended Misiorowski’s presence in comments to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“He’s a very, very good pitcher on a very, very good run right now,” Manfred said.

Sox, meet Rox

The Rockies are on pace to lose 124 or 125 games, which would break last season’s White Sox’ record of 121. How desperate are they to avoid such humiliation? Not very, according to their lone All-Star, catcher Hunter Goodman.

“That hasn’t been on our minds at all,” he said. “As tough as it’s been this year, I think we’ve done a good job of showing up every day and saying, ‘It’s a new day, a chance to get better.’ ”