It’s time for the All-Star Home Run Derby 2022! Some of the biggest names in sports are in Hollywood, taking aim at the stands at Dodger Stadium.
At the head of the derby is the derby champion Pete Alonso. How do the rest of the field stack up against the home run king? Can someone take the belt from the Mets hitter known as “Polar Bear”?
This is your one-stop shop for all things Home Run Derby, from round-by-round scores to live updates to pre-Derby predictions and information from ESPN MLB experts Alden Gonzalez, Buster Olney, Jeff Passan and David Schonfield.
Let the fun begin!
Watch: T-Mobile Home Run Derby on ESPN (8 p.m. ET)
MLB All-Star Home Run Derby
(1) Kyle Schwarber vs. (8) Albert Pujols
(4) Juan Soto vs. (5) Jose Ramirez
(6) Julio Rodriguez vs. (3) Corey Seager
(7) Ronald Acuna Jr. vs. (2) Pete Alonso
Round 1
Julio Rodriguez (32 home runs) beat Corey Seager (24 home runs)
Ronald Acuna Jr. (19 home runs) vs. Pete Alonso
Live updates
Seattle has a lot of praise for J-Rod
With his win over Seager, Rodriguez became the first sailor to advance to the Derby semifinals since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1998. Guess who’s in today: The Kid himself. Griffey’s advice: “Let Julio be Julio.”
Rodriguez hot from the goal
Rookie nerves? Not for Julio Rodriguez. The 21-year-old phenom put together one of the most impressive rounds in Home Run Derby history, finishing with 32 home runs. He started hitting a string of balls that scraped over the fence, went into some low screaming liners that cleared the fence, then started hitting a few that cleared the entire ballpark.
Junior knows good content when he sees it. pic.twitter.com/qgGGrfFYEH
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 19, 2022
We’re one hit, but the message has been sent: Julio is coming for your crown, Pete Alonso.
We’re underway!
The 2022 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby is underway with Mariners phenom Julio Rodriguez starting in Los Angeles.
Predictions before the Derby
Who will win the Home Run Derby and who will they beat in the finals?
Gonzalez: Soto wasn’t happy about being thrown into trade rumors right before the All-Star break, and this is the perfect place for the game’s best pure hitter to direct his anger. Soto has been hot this month and will dethrone Pete Alonso in the finale. He’ll do it by hitting a bunch of opposite field homers as well.
Olney: Soto will go head-to-head with Alonso and it will be like Ali-Frazier, with Soto barely edging out the defending champion.
2 Connected
Passan: Alonso, of course. He is the most prolific home run hitter on the planet. He knows how to win the derby as he has done it the last two times. His toughest test may come in the first round against Acuna, but they’ve faced each other before, in 2019, and the Polar Bear came out on top. He would do it again this year, thwarting NL East opponent Soto in the final.
Schoenfield: This is the year of the Sailors! Rodriguez was fired up and not lacking in confidence. He would hit a bunch of low lasers into the left-center stands and, like Alonso in 2019, win it as a rookie – knocking out Alonso in the semis and Schwarber in the final.
Who will hit the longest home run of the night and how far?
Gonzalez: Acuna is averaging 437 feet per home run this season, longest in the majors. Since his rookie year in 2018, he has hit 13 home runs of 450 feet or more, second only to C.J. Krohn — despite missing significant time with a torn ACL. Three years ago, Acuna homered in all fields, creating a beautiful splash chart, but lost to Alonso in the second round. If he chooses to be happy this year, he’ll clear Dodger Stadium several times. One can even reach 510 feet.
Olney: Alonso will hit a 512-foot homer, reviving juice ball talk.
Passan: Soto’s amazing power is so free, so easy, that one takes it for granted. In an event like the Home Run Derby, the number of home runs is more important than distance when it comes to winning the event, but not hearts and minds. We want to see tanks. We want to see balls that never stop flying. We want to see Soto hit a ball 515 feet, and we will.
Schoenfield: There have only been five home runs hit from Dodger Stadium during game action — two by Willie Stargell and one each by Mark McGuire, Mike Piazza and Giancarlo Stanton. The longest of these was that of Stargell at approximately 506 feet. Not only will we see a few fly out of the ballpark during the contest, we’ll see a pair longer than 506. And the longest: Schwarber will hit a 522-foot home run.
Albert Pujols is in his final Home Run Derby tonight, what are your predictions for the 42-year-old?
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Gonzalez: I had him shock everyone by hitting Schwarber, the NL home run leader, in the first round. Never underestimate Pujols’ pride and competitiveness. He wasn’t Albert Puhols because his bat speed is no longer fast enough to accommodate the animation speeds of today’s game; nothing to do with his raw power. He knows this event as he competed in the first timed Derby in 2015 and Soto will be the one to quickly eliminate him in Round 2.
Olney: He will get the second biggest ovation of the night and all the players will surround him to congratulate him after an impressive first round. But he won’t survive a really tough matchup against Schwarber.
Passan: He’ll have a better-than-expected performance, meaning his first-round matchup against Schwarber won’t end with a minute-plus on Schwarber on the clock. Pujols is too competitive, too proud, to allow that. But in the end, he’ll get respect for pushing the top spot … but not the W he desires.
Schoenfield: One and done. I mean, not a single home run. He’ll land a dozen punches in the first round, but Schwarber will knock him out.
What’s the one moment we’ll all be talking about long after this HR Derby is over?
Gonzalez: The last round. Soto vs. Alonso. Two division rivals do. The best pure hitter of this generation against one of the most famous derby competitors in history, in a rematch of last year’s semifinals from Coors Field. It was largely fortuitous that Soto and Alonso ended up on either side of this year’s pack, and it would ultimately lead to one of the most electrifying rounds this event has produced.
Olney: Soto shuffles and drops his bat after hitting a huge number in the championship round.
Passan: An Alonso-Rodriguez matchup in the semifinals would be everything: king vs. wunderkind, right-handed thunderer vs. right-handed thunderer, possible coronation vs. national coming-out party. While Rodriguez may have drawn the crowd’s ire for pushing Seager, a longtime Dodger, in the first round, he’ll win them back with a show in the next round … only to be thwarted by the champ, who isn’t ready to back down just yet his crown.
Schoenfield: How about passing the torch? Rodriguez was 6 months old when Puhols made his first All-Star game as a rookie in 2001. Now we have the game’s next big star taking center stage. They won’t face each other unless they meet in the finals, but I’m sure we’ll get a Pujols-Rodriguez hug at some point – one generation to another.
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