By Nancy Armour
The Associated Press

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Tuesday's game

CHICAGO - With a three-run lead and Billy Wagner, John Smoltz and Eric Gagne in the bullpen, the National League figured this All-Star game was pretty well wrapped up.

"It's a pretty neat feeling," Smoltz said. "You feel pretty much armed. That whole staff, that's something undescribable. In a normal situation, you don't have that kind of ammunition."

But this time, that overpowering arsenal misfired. Wagner allowed a solo homer to Jason Giambi in the seventh inning, and Gagne gave up three runs, including a pinch-hit, two-run homer to Hank Blalock, in the eighth as the American League rallied for a 7-6 victory Tuesday night.

"I'll take the blame for the National League," Gagne said. "Sorry, but that's the way it is if you want to be a closer."

But this was hardly the performance NL manager Dusty Baker expected when he put together his pitching staff. Smoltz (34), Gagne (31) and Wagner (25) lead the NL in saves, and Gagne has converted 39 consecutive saves going back to last season. From May 31 to June 13, he retired 24 straight batters.

Turn the game over to any one of those three, and odds are pretty good he'll close it out. Let all three of them handle the job, and the engravers can get to work on the trophy.

And it sure looked as if that would be the case Tuesday. The NL took a 6-3 lead on Andruw Jones' solo homer in the seventh, his third RBI of the game. Baker turned to Wagner first, sending him in to face the top of the AL lineup in the bottom of the seventh.

"We're pretty confident that game is pretty much in the bag," Wagner said. "But that's the beauty of baseball. There is no sure thing until it's over."

Wagner quickly retired Bret Boone and Magglio Ordonez. But he missed with his very first pitch to Giambi, and the New York Yankees slugger sent the ball rocketing over the wall in center field.

"The ball came back over the plate," Wagner said. "He did what he gets paid to do."

Then it was Gagne's turn. Nomar Garciaparra grounded out, but Garret Anderson followed with a double, his third hit of the night.

Pinch-runner Melvin Mora advanced to third on Carl Everett's groundout to first, and scored on Vernon Wells' RBI double.

That brought up Blalock, whose Texas Rangers have no stake in the home-field advantage in the World Series that went to the winner of this year's All-Star game. But Blalock delivered all the same, hitting a two-run homer on a 3-1 count.

"I actually thought of that the other day, 'What if I'm the guy to go out there and blow the save?"' Gagne said, referring to the impact the All-Star game can have on the World Series. "Hopefully I'll be in there in October so I can get my stuff back and go out there and redeem myself."

Even with home-field advantage, the All-Star game is still, ultimately, an exhibition. But that doesn't make the loss any easier to take, Woody Williams said.

"We had pride on the line, and no one wants to see it go like that," said Williams, who gave up a two-run homer to Anderson in the sixth inning. "The bottom line is you make the pitches, you get outs. It just didn't happen."