Washington will be home to 2018 All Star Game and the American League team….

According to sources from the Commissioner’s Office, Rob Manfred will announce today that Washington DC will be home to the 2018 All Star Game. It will be the fourth consecutive NL city where the ASG is played.

This year the Mid Season Classic will be hosted by the CIncinnati Reds, followed by the San Diego Padres in 2016 (also “homefield advantage” for the American League) and the Miami Marlins in 2017.

Both 2016 and 2018 may be tricky, since the games will be played in National League Stadiums which will serve as American League home fields. Does this mean that the DH rule will be used or not?

When Miami’s turn to have the game was announced in February, MLB said leagues will continue to alternate who bats last, no matter what city stages the All-Star game. So the American League will bat last in the 2016 game at San Diego and in the 2018 game at Washington. This means that the schedule that once was, AL stadium every other year, will be left.

DC has hosted the All-Star Game four times previously – in 1937, 1956, 1962 (all in Griffith Stadium) and 1969. That most recent one was at RFK Stadium, the dreaded cookie cutter that served as home for the Nationals for a while when the Expos left Montreal and moved to DC.

With giving the 2018 ASG to Nationals Park, there are three stadiums left that still need to have an All Star Game appointed.
New Yankee Stadium, the Tropicana Dome and Citizens Bank Park.