Shohei Ohtani puts on show in All-Star Game defeat

ARLINGTON, Texas — Was there any doubt that Shohei Ohtani, star of stars, would make his mark on the All-Star Game?

It took only two at-bats for the Dodgers $700 million main attraction to barrel up a Tanner Houck splitter and send it 400 feet, deep into the right-field seats at Globe Life Park, for a three-run shot.

“In general I haven’t really hit well during the All-Star Game,” Ohtani, who entered play 1-for-4 with two walks and a strikeout in his first three Midsummer Classics, said through an interpreter. “I was just relieved that I put a ball in play.”

Ohtani’s fourth All-Star Game was his best.

The No. 2 hitter drew a walk in the first inning before getting ahead, 2-0, in the third inning, when he saw a hanging Houck splitter.

“Just a good swing,” said Houck, the Red Sox starter.

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“It was impressive to watch,” said Aaron Judge, who had the nice vantage point of watching from center field. “I wish it didn’t happen right there.”

Ohtani became the first Dodger to homer in the showcase event since Mike Piazza in 1996.

Only two things went wrong for Ohtani on Tuesday: His National League side lost, 5-3, which might have cost him an MVP award, and he had the misfortune of facing A’s closer Mason Miller in the fifth inning.

In Ohtani’s final at-bat, he watched two strikes go by — one at 100.6 mph, another 101.8 mph — before swinging through a hard slider.

“Both his pitchers were extremely, very good pitches,” Ohtani said. “They were heavy.”

The American League used nine pitchers, and Clay Holmes was not among them.

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Only Houck allowed a run, and each AL pitcher who was used completed his inning.

Holmes said he was going to enter if another pitcher needed help finishing off an inning.

“You always want to pitch, but I kind of knew coming in that I was going to clean up an inning,” Holmes said.

Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran smacked a two-run, go-ahead home run in the fifth inning and was named the MVP.

The American League has won 10 of the past 11 All-Star Games.

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Former Met and current Royal Seth Lugo put two runners on with one out in the seventh inning, but then struck out Colorado’s Ryan McMahon and induced a ground out from Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna.

Pete Alonso got one at-bat as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and struck out against Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase.

Before the game, Alonso — the only Mets All-Star — said he wished he had company.

“I would’ve loved to have them,” Alonso said of Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo. “I wish they were here for sure.”

Lindor, who got off to a slow start this season that might have cost him, has yet to make an All-Star Game in his four seasons in Queens.

Nimmo has been among the better players in baseball since 2017, but somehow has not yet made an All-Star team, saying this year that he is “just not winning the popularity contest.”

It is possible that Alonso’s appeal for the Home Run Derby swayed MLB into choosing him as the team’s representative.

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