PITTSBURGH – Kenny Rogers has gone from all-star scourge to All-Star starter.

The Tigers’ left-hander, the top winner for the team with the best record in the majors, will be on the mound for the AL on Tuesday night against Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Rogers will be trying to extend a nine-game AL unbeaten streak.

Rogers is 11-3 with a 3.85 ERA, while Penny is 10-2 with a 2.91 ERA. Rogers will be ready – he hasn’t started since Wednesday, lasting 5 2-3 innings in a victory against Oakland.

“He’s well-rested,” AL manager Ozzie Guillen said of Rogers.

Penny also made his last start Wednesday, allowing two runs in seven innings against Arizona, but also pitched one-third of an inning in relief Sunday in the Dodgers’ 3-1 win over San Francisco.

Guillen was limited in his choices as three top AL starters pitched Sunday: the Blue Jays’ Roy Halladay, the White Sox’s Jose Contreras and the Twins’ Johan Santana.

“There’s a lot of guys that deserve to start, but it was unfortunate they pitched yesterday,” Rogers said.

Rogers will be throwing to his regular catcher, too, in Ivan Rodriguez. Rogers will be the first Tigers pitcher to start the All-Star game since Jack Morris at the Metrodome in 1985. The last time Detroit had the starting battery for the event was 1966, when Denny McLain threw to Bill Freehan.

It was this time a year ago Rogers was under intense scrutiny for knocking down a cameraman during a videotaped tirade.

Rogers, then with the Rangers, was charged with a misdemeanor in Texas after videotape of the June 29 incident showed him walking onto Ameriquest Field in Arlington and pushing a television camera to the ground. He agreed to attend an anger management class.

“It was very difficult,” Rogers said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard, but I think I grew up with it and it made me a little better. … Every challenge in my life that’s come my way, I try to take advantage of anything I can learn from it and try to be better.”

NL manager Phil Garner, attending a news conference Monday morning in Pittsburgh unveiled a batting order that finds the Nationals’ playing LF Alfonso Soriano, followed by CF Carlos Beltran, Mets; 1B Albert Pujols, Cardinals; RF Jason Bay, Pirates; SS Edgar Renteria, Braves; 3B David Wright, Mets; 2B Chase Utley, Phillies; C Paul Lo Duca, Mets and Penny.