Aaa Long Ball Goes Far Enough Homer Helps Propel A.L. All-Stars To 5-3 Victory In Minor-League Classic

At first, Frank Catalanotto thought the ball was going to clear the scoreboard. Then it started dropping dangerously close to the right field wall.

“The wind was blowing in, and right when I hit it I thought it was way out of here. So I kinda got into my home run trot,” Catalanotto, of Detroit’s farm club in Toledo, said of his second-inning, two-run homer. “Then the wind started beating it down.

“I was begging. I was saying, ‘Oh please, please, please let it get out.’ “

The ball hit the top of the wall and bounced into right field as Nashville’s Magglio Ordonez and Catalanotto scored in the American League’s 5-3 victory in the Triple-A All-Star Game. Earlier in the second, N.L. starter Dave Swartzbaugh of Iowa had given up a solo home run from his home mound to Rochester’s Danny Clyburn.

Catalanotto was 2 for 4. His other hit was a double deep down the third base line.

Clyburn’s hit caught the wind and sailed well over the left-field corner bleachers.

“That’s about the farthest I’ve ever seen a ball hit in this park,” Swartzbaugh said.

The N.L. cut the lead to 3-1 in the third on a run by Louisville’s Eli Marrero off a sacrifice fly by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Tony Barron.

Catalanotto’s other run came in the fifth, reaching base on his double off Steve Falteisek of Ottawa, then scoring on Jason Wood’s double. Oklahoma City’s Bubba Smith also scored in the inning.

N.L. reliever Nate Minchey of Colorado Springs gave up one hit - but no runs - in the seventh and eighth.

The N.L.’s hopes of a sixth-inning rally ended on a groundout by Calgary’s Ron Wright. Iowa’s Robin Jennings had scored to make it 5-2, but the N.L. left two on base.

Another could-be rally ended in the seventh with just one run.