Round-by-round recap of HR Derby
On the strength of an electric run late in the final round, the Nationals' Bryce Harper came out on top among a field of eight participants in Monday night's T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Nationals Park in Washington D.C., outslugging the Cubs' Kyle Schwarber in the final round to become the third player in Derby history to win the event on his home turf. The 221 homers hit in the Derby were the most in the history of the event.
Harper mashed 45 homers in all (13 in each of the first two rounds and 19 in the final) to outperform a field that also included Rhys Hoskins (Phillies), Jesus Aguilar (Brewers), Alex Bregman (Astros), Javier Baez (Cubs), Player Page for Max Muncy (Dodgers) and Freddie Freeman (Braves).
• Home Run Derby history
Final: Harper (19) def. Schwarber (18)
HARPER (No. 2 seed): The hometown favorite came through in dramatic fashion. Faced with Schwarber's big total, Harper got off to a relatively slow start, with just four homers before calling his first timeout with 2:38 to go. As the clock ticked under a minute, Harper did have a 30-second bonus in the bag, but he still had an uphill battle in front of him. All of a sudden, he flipped the switch. The Nats star demolished nine homers in the final 50 seconds of regulation to pull even with Schwarber. Then came the 30-second bonus, and Harper took advantage, launching the walk-off bomb to dead center field on his second swing, then lifting and tossing the bat in celebration as the home crowd went nuts.
TOTAL: 19 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 478 feet (111 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 112 mph (473 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 428.3 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 107.2 mph
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SCHWARBER (No. 5 seed): Schwarber did his best to give himself some breathing room with another breathtaking performance. He started off with a 453-foot blast into the upper deck for his first homer of the final round and kept right on going. Schwarber crushed three big flies in a row to get to 13 with a little less than a minute to go, eventually reaching 17 at the end of regulation. His seven shots of at least 440 feet easily bought him an extra 30 seconds, which he used to tack one more onto his total.
TOTAL: 18 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 453 feet (110 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 112 mph (393 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 430.4 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 107.1 mph
Round 2: Harper (13) def. Muncy (12)
MUNCY (No. 3 seed): Muncy couldn't quite match his first-round output, but he didn't make it easy for Harper, either. Muncy opened Round 2 by smacking seven homers, then took a timeout with 1:53 to go, then hit two quick homers coming out of the break. However, after getting to 11 dingers with one minute to go, Muncy seemed to run out of gas and ripped just one more the rest of the way.
TOTAL: 12 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 429 feet (107 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 107 mph (429 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 408.7 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 104.4 mph
HARPER (No. 2 seed): Would the pressure of expectations get to Harper in the second round? It seemed like that might be the case, as he went deep just three times in the first minute and a half. Then, he caught fire. Harper crushed homers on five straight swings in one stretch -- earning a 30-second bonus in the process by going longer than 440 feet multiple times. But after calling timeout with 10 big flies and 1:33 to go, Harper made that bonus time irrelevant by popping three more quick homers to advance to the final with 1:11 still left on the clock.
TOTAL: 13 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 454 feet (109 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 113 mph (448 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 414.8 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 107.6 mph
Round 2: Schwarber (21) def. Hoskins (20)
HOSKINS (No. 8 seed): Hoskins became the first player in this year's Derby to reach the 20-homer mark in a round, and several of his home runs were crushed. He drilled three 440-plus-footers in the first half of the round to lock down the 30-second bonus, including a 466-footer that was his longest of the round. And after taking his timeout about halfway through the round, he again went on a tear, just as he did in Round 1. Hoskins launched 12 homers after his timeout, plus a 453-footer in bonus time -- only to be bested by Schwarber, who hit a dramatic walk-off 21st homer as time expired on his own turn.
TOTAL: 20 HRs
LONGEST HR: 466 feet
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 108 mph (453 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 412.5 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 102.6 mph
SCHWARBER (No. 5 seed): When Schwarber cleared the wall just once out of his first eight swings, it didn't seem like he would be able to catch up to the big number Hoskins had put on the board. So much for that. The Cubs slugger strung together multiple streaks of five consecutive homers to get to 12 before taking a timeout with 1:32 to go. Schwarber earned a 30-second bonus with five homers of 440-plus feet, but it turned out he didn't need it, going deep five times in the final 30 seconds of regulation to get to 21. A 425-foot shot down the right-field line, right at the regulation buzzer, punched Schwarber's ticket to the final round.
TOTAL: 21 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 462 feet (109 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 111 mph (454 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 426.0 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 106.6 mph
Round 1: Harper (13) def. Freeman (12)
FREEMAN (No. 7 seed): Freeman is known for his all-fields power, and he showed it off in the first round of the Derby. Five of the lefty-swinging slugger's 12 home runs were hit to the left of dead center field. He didn't qualify for the 30-second time bonus, as his longest homer was 437 feet, but Freeman put on a more-than-respectable showing. But he was bested by the hometown superstar -- Harper walked him off with home run No. 13 as the last batter of Round 1 of the Derby.
TOTAL: 12 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 437 feet (105 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 107 mph (399 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 404.1 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 102.8 mph
HARPER (No. 2 seed): Harper used the whole field, homering to left, center and then right field for his first three big flies. Then there was the 467-foot blast that nearly cleared everything in right field. Harper called timeout to collect himself with 1:36 to go, sitting on nine homers. With the crowd behind him, he cruised from there, crushing the winning dinger with 26 seconds remaining. Harper finished with six homers of 440 feet or longer.
TOTAL: 13 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 467 feet (113 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 113 mph (467 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 425 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 107.0 mph
Round 1: Muncy (17) def. Baez (16)
MUNCY (No. 3 seed): The out-of-nowhere Dodgers star continued to show the power that he's put on display since making it back to the Majors. Muncy came out of the gate hot, smacking seven homers in a span of nine swings early in the round. He called timeout with eight homers -- halfway to Baez -- and with just under two minutes to go. Muncy then cranked things up even more after the break. He went deep on seven straight swings to tie Baez with 45 seconds remaining, then crushed a "walk-off" shot with 32 seconds still on the clock.
TOTAL: 17 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 435 feet (103 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 108 mph (428 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 409.5 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 103.0 mph
BAEZ (No. 6 seed): Baez wasted little time earning himself the 30-second bonus, crushing a pair of homers greater than 440 feet a little more than a minute into his round. The first of those was a monster 479-foot shot that was the first in the Derby to exceed the 470-foot mark. Baez finished with 16 home runs, but unfortunately for the electric Cubs infielder, it wasn't enough. Muncy belted a walk-off 17th homer to advance to Round 2.
TOTAL: 16 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 479 feet (107 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 108 mph (402 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 422.1 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 103.3 mph
Round 1: Schwarber (16) def. Bregman (15)
SCHWARBER (No. 5 seed): Schwarber became the first player to qualify for the bonus 30 seconds, crushing several home runs farther than 440 feet in his regulation timeframe -- including one that went a projected 450 feet. The home runs he launched in his extra time proved to be the difference in his win over Bregman. The Cubs slugger also became the first player in the field to hit a home run harder than 110 mph, launching a 115-mph drive.
TOTAL: 16 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 450 feet (107 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR: 115 mph
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 419.6 feet
BREGMAN (No. 4 seed): Presented with Schwarber's high total to top, Bregman gave his opponent a run for his money. The Astros star called his timeout with a little over two minutes left and went on a strong run at about the one-minute mark, going deep on three straight swings to move within three of Schwarber. But after hitting his 15th dinger with about 13 seconds to go, Bregman made two straight outs, the last of them a shot off the left-center-field wall that left him a few feet shy of pulling into a tie.
TOTAL: 15 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 422 feet (103 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 103 mph (422 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 397.3 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 98.4 mph
Round 1: Hoskins (17) def. Aguilar (12)
HOSKINS (No. 8 seed): Hoskins got off to a solid start -- but probably slower than he would have liked -- with five home runs in the first half of his allotted time, before he took his timeout with 2:05 remaining on the clock. And coming out of the break, he went on a tear. Hoskins slugged six homers in the next minute of action, then five more in the final minute to finish with 17. He didn't qualify for the bonus time, but he did crush one homer 463 feet to left field.
TOTAL: 17 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 463 feet (105 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 108 mph (397 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 403.1 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 102.5 mph
AGUILAR (No. 1 seed): A dozen home runs would be enough to win in some matchups, but Aguilar simply couldn't generate the kind of brisk pace necessary to keep up with Hoskins. The Brewers slugger had seven dingers when he called timeout with 1:34 remaining, but he wasn't able to get on the kind of hot streak he needed, never homering on back-to-back swings the rest of the way.
TOTAL: 12 HRs
LONGEST HR (EXIT VELO): 428 feet (106 mph)
HARDEST-HIT HR (DISTANCE): 106 mph (428 feet)
AVERAGE HR DISTANCE: 406.4 feet
AVERAGE HR EXIT VELOCITY: 101.2 mph