The Major League Baseball All Star break kicked off tonight with the 2018 T-Mobile Home Run Derby. The eight competitors displayed some of their raw power at Nationals Park. This years contestants made up the youngest field ever.
Round 1:
1 Jesus Aguilar vs 8 Rhys Hoskins
- Aguilar HR Total: 12
- Aguilar Furthest HR: 428 FT
- Hoskins HR Total: 17
- Hoskins Furthest HR: 463 FT
The rookie Hoskins put on a show and was able to pull off the upset in his first ever derby appearance. Hoskins launched a moonshot to dead center as time expired.
2 Bryce Harper vs 7 Freddie Freeman
- Harper HR Total: 13
- Harper Furthest HR: 467 FT
- Freeman HR Total: 12
- Freeman Furthest HR: 437 FT
Harper did not disappoint the hometown fans, absolutely destroying baseballs. He blasted one to the last row in deep right field. He clinched the round win with about 30 seconds left on the clock.
3 Max Muncy vs 6 Javier Baez
- Muncy HR Total: 17
- Muncy Furthest HR: 435 FT
- Baez HR Total: 16
- Baez Furthest HR: 479 FT
Baez hit the longest home run of the night at that point when he drove a 479 foot bomb to deep left. Muncy took off, hitting six home runs in the first minute, and clinched the win with about 35 seconds still left.
4 Alex Bregman vs 5 Kyle Schwarber
- Bregman HR Total: 15
- Bregman Furthest HR: 413 FT
- Schwarber HR Total: 16
- Schwarber Furthest HR: 450 FT
Schwarber put on a show in his first derby appearance, driving multiple balls to the upper decks. Bregman just missed tying the round up, as he drove a blast off the left field fence in the final seconds.
Semi-Finals:
8 Rhys Hoskins vs 5 Kyle Schwarber
- Hoskins HR Total: 20
- Hoskins Furthest HR: 466 FT
- Schwarber HR Total: 21
- Schwarber Furthest HR: 434 FT
Hoskins again put on a show in the second round, launching 20 home runs. However, only hitting one home run during the bonus time proved to be costly for the Phillies rookie.
Schwarber earned his bonus time, but he did not need to use it. The lefty launched his finals clinching 21st drive as time expired.
2 Bryce Harper vs 3 Max Muncy
- Bryce Harper HR Total: 13
- Bryce Harper Furthest HR: 441 FT
- Max Muncy HR Total: 12
- Max Muncy Furthest HR: 429 FT
Max Muncy put together a good round, but was not able to earn the 440 FT bonus time, which proved costly.
Harper started out slow, but then launched nine home runs to clinch the bonus time before taking his timeout. He quickly launched five home runs on as many consecutive swings to clinch the finals with about a minute remaining in the round.
Finals:
5 Kyle Schwarber vs 2 Bryce Harper
- Schwarber Total HR: 18
- Schwarber Longest HR: 434 FT
- Harper Total HR: 19
- Harper Longest HR: 441 FT
Schwarber launched five early home runs before using a timeout. Coming out of the timeout he launched five bombs in a row, before calling his second time out. Schwarber then closed out the final two minutes with a hot stretch to head to the bonus round with 17 home runs. He hit just one in the bonus round to set the magic number at 18.
Harper struggled early, and hit just four home runs before calling his first time out. He then went on a stretch, hitting five home runs two of which were 440+ home runs.
He then went on another run, and launched the derby tying home run as time expired. He needed just two pitches in bonus time to walk-off the 2018 Home Run Derby.
2018 Home Run Derby Champion: Bryce Harper
