The Boston Red Sox Wednesday, July 18, 2018 * The Boston Globe Red Sox enjoy the All-Star Game as the AL outslugs the NL Peter Abraham WASHINGTON — J.D. Martinez walked into the visiting team clubhouse at Nationals Park on Tuesday afternoon and seemed surprised to find a dozen reporters waiting at his locker. “You guys need me?” he asked. Martinez is one of the best players in his sport, a studious hitter who leads the majors with 29 home runs and 80 RBIs. But, at heart, he’s a former Division 2 player who was drafted in the 20th round and released after three seasons in the majors. Celebrity doesn’t come naturally after you’ve been cast aside. Yet there Martinez was, batting cleanup behind Mike Trout and ripping a single to center field off Max Scherzer in the first inning of the All-Star Game. “Surreal,” said Martinez, who was long out of the game when the American League beat the National League, 8-6, in 10 innings. “It’s one of those moments where it’s really cool. It’s definitely been a dream of mine to be here. “I wouldn’t change it for anything if I could go back in time. I’m glad I failed. I’m glad I’ve fallen on my face. I feel like it made me who I am today.” Related: For Chris Sale, ‘a nice little tuneup’ and some fun in his All-Star appearance Martinez finished 1 for 2 as the designated hitter. He struck out swinging in the third inning facing Jacob deGrom of the Mets. In a game befitting how baseball is played in 2018, there were 10 home runs in the game, an All-Star record, and 25 strikeouts. Chris Sale started for the American League and threw a scoreless inning. The Red Sox lefthander allowed a leadoff single by Javy Baez then retired Nolan Arenado on a fly ball to left field, struck out Paul Goldschmidt, and got Freddie Freeman on a fly ball to center. Sale hit 100.7 miles per hour with his fastball, the fastest he has thrown a pitch since at least 2010. Watching from the dugout, Martinez was impressed. “I saw when he hit 101. I looked at him and he started laughing,” Martinez said. “Nasty, he’s been nasty. Any time you’re in this atmosphere at the All-Star Game amongst these kind of hitters and this crowd, you’re going to be pumped up. That didn’t surprise me at all.” Sale has appeared in six of the seven All-Star Games he was selected to. He has allowed two runs on eight hits over eight innings with no walks and eight strikeouts. Mookie Betts started in right field for the AL and was 0 for 3, striking out twice. He did manage to see 15 pitches at least. “It was fun being around the guys and just taking it all in,” Betts said. “More relaxed, more fun for sure.” Related: Mookie Betts ‘locked in’ on futures of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper For Betts, the most notable moment came before the game when baseball honored a group of Medal of Honor recipients and the players formed a line to shake hands with the veterans. “That was real cool. I have a lot of family that served,” Betts said. “It was great to see what it meant to people because it definitely meant something to me.” Betts also made a sartorial statement, wearing a brick-hued double-breasted suit with light pink shoes to the game. Mitch Moreland entered the game for the American League in the sixth inning. He finished 2 for 3. “Definitely a lot of fun,” Moreland said. “The whole couple of days, just experiencing all of it, the fans out there tonight, it was pretty cool.” Of the five Red Sox players on the AL roster, only Craig Kimbrel did not get in the game. He appeared in four of the five games before the break and it was decided before the game he would pitch only if necessary. Down 5-3, the NL tied the game in the bottom of the ninth on Scooter Gennett’s two-run homer off Edwin Diaz. The AL scored three runs in the 10th, the first two on home runs by Astros teammates Alex Bregman and George Springer off Ross Stripling of the Dodgers. Bregman won the Ted Williams Award as MVP. Related: Trade talk is heating up for Orioles’ Manny Machado Joey Votto led off the bottom of the 10th with a homer, but J.A. Happ finished the game. The AL has won seven straight Midsummer Classics and 18 of 22. Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Jean Segura also homered for the AL. Trout has hit safely in all six All-Star Games he has played in at 7 of 15 with five extra-base hits and four RBIs. Willson Contreras, Trevor Story, and Christian Yelich added homers for the NL. Martinez and Moreland traveled back to Boston after the game. They’ll relax Wednesday, then head for Detroit later in the day Thursday. The Sox face the Tigers on Friday night. “Hang out, enjoy the time off, and probably go get a little workout in,” Martinez said. “Start it back up again.” Mookie Betts ‘locked in’ on futures of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper Alex Speier WASHINGTON — For a night at least, the Home Run Derby represented something more than a sheer display of raw power. In Nationals Park, as Bryce Harper drilled nine homers in 47 seconds with a stunning display that underscored his rare gift to send baseballs into orbit, the display served as a reminder of the relationship between an iconic player and his city, the idea of a connection in which affection flows both ways. The crowd for the All-Star spectacle roared at every Harper homer, chanted his name over and over into the night. For his part, Harper reciprocated the warmth and love of his fan base not only by winning the Derby but by making clear his appreciation for what so many have meant to him over the eight years of his professional baseball life. “This wasn’t only for me and my family and everybody like that but this is for, you know, the cook, the guy that works the front, and the people that work upstairs. I mean, this is the whole city of D.C.,” Harper beamed after the fact. “I was very fortunate to be able to bring this back to them and do it here.” The emotions expressed by Harper came with a context that tinged his emotional sentiments with a hint of melancholy. Harper, now 25, stands on the cusp of a free-agent bidding war that promises to confer upon him incredible riches. Even in a decidedly down year in which he’s hitting .214 with a .365 OBP and .468 slugging mark, he’s expected to cash in to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars on the open market this winter. And the fact that there are expected to be numerous bidders for his services makes Harper’s future in Washington entirely uncertain. It was hard not to imagine that Monday’s performance might have represented something of a parting gift to the city and organization where Harper has grown up. Harper’s pending free agency carries considerable significance for the Red Sox. He was born on Oct. 16, 1992, nine days after one Markus Lynn Betts. And while Harper is going to arrive at free agency two years before the Red Sox’ superstar, the fact that Harper and Manny Machado (born on July 6, 1992) are preparing for open-market bonanzas is of both relevance and interest to Betts’s future in Boston. Harper and Machado represent the first superstars whom Betts views as true contemporaries who will reach free agency, the first players with loud, screaming, franchise-altering tools who will go to the open market. With all due respect to Eric Hosmer and his eight-year, $144 million deal with the Padres, Betts — now amidst a second MVP-caliber campaign in three years — is in a different category. The deals that Harper and Machado realize will reset the market in a way that has considerable bearing on Betts’s future. Amidst a season in which he has cemented his place as one of the inner-circle elites in the game, Betts is aware of the significance of the coming winter. “I’m definitely really curious to see how that will play out. We’ll see the way it breaks. We all know what kind of player [Harper] is. I think that may affect some things going forward,” said Betts. “I think things are kind of coming full circle now. My peers are going through what is soon to come. Yeah, I’ll definitely be locked in to see what they get.” He won’t be alone. Front offices likewise are eager to see where the market for young superstars ends up this winter, knowing that if they have their own prime-age star — if they have a Betts — then any future negotiations will be framed by what Harper and Machado get. The Sox have made no secret of an interest in retaining Betts beyond his eligibility for free agency following the 2020 season. They’ve approached him about the possibility of extensions, though each time, even as Betts has noted his enjoyment of the Red Sox organization, he’s expressed a preference to negotiate his earnings on a year-to-year basis.