The National League’s Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins launches a home run in the semifinals of the MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby on Monday at PetCo Park in San Diego.
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Stanton defeated defending champion Todd Frazier in the final round with 20 home runs, matching his total from the first half of the season.
Stanton was named the National League’s Player of the Week before the Derby began after hitting five home runs and finishing with 10 RBIs last week. They’ve brought in the walls, sure, but the walls weren’t exactly an issue for Stanton, who was peppering the second deck and upper levels of the Western Metal Supply Company sign over and over again. Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts hits fifth, ahead of Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, Bosox right fielder Mookie Betts, Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez and Red Sox left fielder Jackie Bradley.
Stanton set the bar high in the final round, with 11 of his home runs surpassing the 440-foot mark. Former Mariner Mark Trumbo, who leads the majors with 22 homers at the All-Star break, beat Corey Seager. “That’s why I came here and I’m taking it with me”, Stanton said on the telecast while hoisting his Home Run Derby trophy.
Joe Prunty’s first game filling in for Jason Kidd produced a 113-100 win over a Philadelphia 76ers team that has won just one game all season. But Monday night at Petco Park, it was Giancarlo Stanton making the magic. He hit 10 that were longer than the best shot of any of the other seven competitors. The 1980s hitter wasn’t anything more than a home run producer and spent many years in many different uniforms.
All this does is build on Stanton’s legend – one that has been added by a big frame, a solid bat and now the addition of Barry Bonds as his hitting coach. At age 26, he has already hit 201 home runs, and has months to go before he reaches his 27th year. Who is going to push the most powerful hitter in baseball more than the most powerful hitter of all time? Granted, yes that’s on an extreme crow hop, but I want to know how close those outfielders can get to that on a mound. Before we got our first glimpse of Giancarlo Stanton, it seemed like it might be Trumbo’s night. “I would like to return that”.
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It was Frazier’s third consecutive appearance in the championship round, winning it last season in Cincinnati and finishing second the year before in Minneapolis. Seager’s longest homer travelled 455 feet. That 497-foot blast above was the longest tater ever recorded in the brief history of MLB’s Statcast. Frazier tied it up and took his time to hit his final homer to meet up with Stanton in the final. A year after blasting 70 home runs, he – along with Sammy Sosa and Griffey – lit up the Boston skies in 1999.
