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NATIONAL LEAGUE

Best of five . Game 1: Thursday at San Francisco, 9:37 Game 2: Friday at San Francisco 9:37 Game 3: Sunday at Atlanta, 4:37 Game 4: Monday at Atlanta Game 5: Oct. 13 at San Francisco

Cal Ripken Jr. has been an All-Star 13 times. He is the senior star who played last night. The man's team lost. The man knows the drill. "When you lose, you have to say it's just an exhibition," Ripken said. "When you win, you say you took it seriously. " The American League lost. The National League got three hits, all homers, and won the 66th All-Star Game by a 3-2 score. It was just an exhibition. It was just an exhibition loss for the AL, its second straight after six consecutive wins.

The popular sporting expression of the day in Montreal yesterday went something like this: "On s'est fait vole. " In case you skipped your Berlitz class, that's French for: "We wuz robbed. " Which seemed to be about the most polite reaction from the Quebecois when news reached them yesterday that the National League had decided to recognize the Phillies, not the Expos, as defending league champions. The Montreal Gazette stripped a headline across the top of the front page of the newspaper that read: Baseball's final insult: Phillies declared champions.

So you say you could watch those great baseball all-stars play all night long, huh? Well, last night at the Oakland Coliseum, they definitely played a game for you. It was a game only Jim Otto (No. 00), Al Oliver (No. 0) and Sadaharu Oh could have loved. It was a game that should have been sponsored by Weight Watchers. (Nobody got near the plate, you see.) It was a game that went more scoreless innings than any other All-Star Game in history. For that matter, it was a game that almost went more innings, period, than any other All-Star Game in history.

ATLANTA - Whatever Natitude is, the Phillies will experience it Friday night when they square off against Washington in the first game of what is shaping up to be the most intriguing series between the two teams in recent memory. The Nationals lead the National League East by 1 1/2 games. The last time Washington was in first place later than April 4 was 2005, when it went 81-81 and finished nine games back in the division. The Phillies, meanwhile, are 13-13 and 3 1/2 games back.

Not including Saturday's games.   G   AB   R   H   Avg.    Kemp LAD 20   73   21   33   .452    Altuve Hou 19   74   13   28   .378    Posey SF 17   62   10   23   .371    DWright NYM 17   61   10   22   .361    Freese StL 18   66   9   23   .348    SCastro ChC 20   79   9   27   .342    ...

MIAMI - The sellout crowd in the Miami Marlins' new ballpark cheered the introduction of their starters, who were accompanied by women dressed as Latin showgirls. There was another roar for Muhammad Ali, who delivered the first pitch. Then Kyle Lohse and the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals went to work, and the place grew quiet. Lohse held Miami hitless until the seventh inning and pitched into the eighth to help the Cardinals win the first game in Marlins Park, 4-1, Wednesday night.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Remember that famous optical illusion? The one that looks like an old woman or a young woman? Google it. Stare at it. Picture it in your mind. Got it? Good. Now, do the same thing with the Braves' roster. Because with 3 weeks to go before Opening Day, it is impossible to form a definitive opinion on what to expect out of the Phillies' most recent National League East rivals. Do you see a team that has entered the last two Septembers in position for a playoff berth?

Harry Wendelstedt, a legendary major-league umpire from 1966 to 1998 who worked five World Series, seven NL championship series and four All-Star Games, and was behind the plate for five no-hitters, died Friday, in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 73. Wendelstedt's most memorable call came on May 31, 1968, at Dodger Stadium. Don Drysdale, trying for his fifth straight shutout, hit San Francisco's Dick Dietz on the elbow with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth. Wendelstedt, behind the plate, immediately ruled Dietz didn't try to get out of the way and told him to get back in the box. After the inevitable brouhaha over the call, Drysdale got Dietz on a flyout, escaped the jam, and got his shutout.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It doesn't take much to receive top billing on an overcast Sunday in this part of the Sunshine State, an observation that is important to make when you consider the number of spectators who turned out for Cliff Lee's bullpen session yesterday morning. The trainers, coaches and front-office personnel who attended chose to do so over a list of options that was essentially limited to church and IHOP. And while we cannot underestimate the lure of the Rooty Tooty Fresh n' Fruity, we also must acknowledge the possibility that a similarly sized contingent would have showed up to watch Lee stand on the side of the road and yell at traffic.

Last in a series   MAYBE Jayson Werth knew what he was doing, after all. A year removed from his decision to take the money and run from the powerhouse Phillies to the power-starved Nationals, Werth's total postseason deficit is one crushing NLDS defeat at the hands of the Cardinals. And no, the Nationals will not have a Holy Trinity like Halladay, Lee and Hamels in their rotation. But, despite a purge of recognizable if unproductive veterans, they might have a formidable club.

National League MVP Ryan Braun, who this past season led the Milwaukee Brewers to their first division title in nearly three decades, has tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and faces a 50-game suspension if the initial finding is upheld, two sources familiar with the case told ESPN's Outside the Lines . Major League Baseball has not announced the positive test because Braun is disputing the result through arbitration....

DALLAS - They were the Florida Marlins when the 2011 season ended, then became the Miami Marlins in November. Now it appears they want to be the Miami Heat. Like their NBA cousins, the Marlins are trying to gather a team of superstars in their effort to end the Phillies' divisional dominance and win a third World Series title. The fact that the Heat's quest for a championship came up short in the NBA Finals and everybody's favorite NFL dream team has crashed and burned right before the sore eyes of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has not deterred Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.

Milwaukee's Ryan Braun won the NL Most Valuable Player Award after leading the Brewers to their first division title in nearly 30 years. Braun received 20 of 32 first-place votes and 388 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Los Angeles centerfielder Matt Kemp, who came close to winning the Triple Crown, received 10 first-place votes and finished with 332 points. Braun's teammate Prince Fielder finished third with 229 points, and Arizona's Justin Upton finished fourth with 214 points.