Baseball’s All-Star Game — which featured the contest’s first swing-off to determine the winner — averaged 7,185,000 viewers Tuesday night on Fox, according to Nielsen.

It was Fox’s most-watched telecast since the Super Bowl and the network’s best audience for a Tuesday night since last year’s Game 4 of the World Series. However, it was a 3.5% decrease from the 2024 game and the second-lowest for the Midsummer Classic.

Kyle Schwarber’s three home runs gave the National League a 4-3 victory in the swing-off after the American League rallied to tie it at 6-6 in the ninth inning after trailing by six runs in the seventh. The audience for the game in Atlanta peaked at 8.1 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. EDT.

Major League Baseball and the players’ association made the change in 2022 amid concerns about running out of pitchers because hardly anyone throws more than an inning in the game anymore, The game was decided by having three batters from each league take three swings each off coaches in what was baseball’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shootout.

Baseball continues to have the best ratings for an event featuring All-Stars. The NHL did not have an All-Star Game this year, while the NBA’s averaged 4.7 million on TNT. The NFL’s Pro Bowl games, a series of skills competitions and flag football, also averaged 4.7 million on ABC.

Monday night’s Home Run Derby averaged 5.73 million on ESPN, a 5% increase over last year.

Royals reacquire utilityman Frazier

The Kansas City Royals reacquired veteran utility player Adam Frazier on Wednesday in an All-Star break trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kansas City sent minor league infielder Cam Devanney to Pittsburgh.

Frazier, 33, has played in 78 games this season split between second base, left field and right field, hitting .255 with 21 RBIs. He spent last season with KC after bouncing around the majors following his start with the Pirates and has played every position except catcher and pitcher during his career since debuting in 2016.

Frazier joins the Royals as they are 4 1/2 games back of the American League’s final wild-card spot. They are 12 games behind Detroit for first in the AL Central.

Devanney, 28, has spent this season at Triple-A Omaha and has not yet made his major league debut.

Rangers’ Burger back on injured list

Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger will be on the injured list for the second time this season when the team resumes play after the All-Star break.

Texas placed Burger on the 10-day IL on Wednesday because of a left quad strain. The move was retroactive to Sunday, a day after Burger struck out as a pinch hitter in the 10th inning at Houston. He had exited in the sixth inning of Friday night’s opener in the three-game series against the AL West-leading Astros.

The Rangers (48-49) didn’t immediately make a corresponding roster move. They open a three-game series at home Friday night against Detroit (59-38), which despite a four-game losing streak still has the best record in the major leagues.

Burger, who is hitting .228 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs over 75 games in his first season with Texas, played in only 10 games after returning from his previous IL stint. He missed 10 games from June 21-July 2 because of a left oblique strain.