WASHINTON -- Alex Bregman put on a late charge in the first round of the T-Mobile Home Run Derby, but he came up a few feet short, falling to Kyle Schwarber, 16-15, when his final drive hit off the left-center-field wall as time expired.
Scwarber posted 16 homers in his first time in the box on Monday night at Nationals Park. He hit14 in regulation and two more during his bonus time of 30 seconds that was awarded for hitting two blasts over 440 feet. Schwarber hit what ended up being the deciding blast to the third deck in right field to advance to the semifinals.
• Round-by-round recap of T-Mobile Home Run Derby
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It looked like Schwarber's total was safe when Bregman called a timeout with 2:04 remaining and seven home runs on the board, but the Astros' infielder was just waiting to make a dramatic finish.
"That was a lot of fun," Bregman said. "I'll tell you, it was a lot of fun to see [Jose] Altuve, [Justin] Verlander and all the guys and Gerrit [Cole] and Charlie [Morton] and [George] Springer getting hyped for the last few swings. You know what? Maybe next year."

The hype that Bregman's teammates were giving him was well deserved. With just over a minute remaining on the clock, Bregman launched four consecutive long balls before missing one --- only to come back with his fifth blast since the 1:02 mark. Bregman's final swing came up just a few feet shy of forcing a 60-second swing-off.
"I gave it everything I got," Bregman said. "I tried to win the thing and hit a few line drives that would've landed in the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid that didn't land in the Crawford Boxes here."

According to Statcast™, the average distance of Bregman's 15 home runs was 397.3 feet. His longest was projected to travel 422 feet, and his top exit velocity of the night was 103 mph.
"I had a great time," Bregman said. "[Javier] Bracamonte filled up the zone with strikes. Came up a little short, but who knows, maybe in the future I'll do it again and maybe win next time."
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Although it was a hard-fought match, the battle between Schwarber and Bregman ended with a hug.
Now that the Home Run Derby is over, Bregman is looking forward to turning the page and focusing on his performance in Tuesday's All-Star Game presented by Mastercard.
"It was great," Bregman said of squaring up against Schwarber. "We played together on Team USA. He had a heck of a performance tonight. It's going to be fun. Looking forward to tomorrow. The game's going to be a blast."
Schwarber defeated the Phillies' Rhys Hoskins in the semifinals before falling to hometown hero Bryce Harper in an exciting final.