Todd Frazier is sending his love to the Cincinnati fans which is my signal to say goodnight.
The new format has saved the Home Run Derby. If only we could have a 4:00 clock on everything in life.
Frazier wins!
Please Berman don’t say it... just don’t say it...
Frazier with the closest thing to a buzzer-beating, walk-off that baseball will ever have.
Frazier loves the dramatic. He’s making a run at Pederson.
Frazier is dying with 2:00 left.
We almost had a Jeffrey Maier home run with Frazier in right field.
Since Frazier is a right handed hitter, we can probably forget about the idea of someone hitting a ball into the river tonight.
Joc Pederson just dropped 14 home runs in the final. Now he will hit .190 with two home runs the next two months.
The last time we saw Pederson vs. Frazier was the episode of Cheers where they play Monopoly to teach Woody about capitalism.
— Jesse Spector (@jessespector) July 14, 2015
When Joc Pederson hits baseballs, he hits them very, very far.
Pederson-Frazier Final
If David Stern was running the Home Run Derby everyone would say it was rigged for Frazier.
So Pujols loses out on a shot at the Home Run Derby final waiting for a high fly ball to drop to the ground. This is a much, much better format than the old Home Run Derby.
Pujols seems to have something wrong with his bottom hand. One would hope he hasn’t hurt his hand in a home run derby.
This is brilliant
"Dad? Daaaad? DAD!" - @KrisBryant_23. #HRDerby pic.twitter.com/eL1i2Jf2Og
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) July 14, 2015
Pederson looked ready to hit one more home run but his pitcher froze as the clock ran down. Still, with 12 HR I like him in this round against Pujols and still like him to win this contest.
Yes, Joc Pederson’s real name is Joc. His brothers are named Tyger and Champ.
98 home runs tonight, or 15 more than in the 1885 season.
— Old Hoss Radbourn (@OldHossRadbourn) July 14, 2015
Todd Frazier home run burst is fantastic but it also means we have to endure another round of Chris Berman’s...”Down goes Frazier!”
Probably not going to happen tonight but if someone were to hit a ball over the right field stands and into the Ohio River (as Adam Dunn once did with the ball landing on driftwood in the river) they would conceivably clear the Ohio-Kentucky border meaning they would hit the ball into another state. ..Again, it’s not likely to happen but...
New Home Run Derby format > Old Home Run Derby Format
Still my favorite to win this thing going into the semis...
.@yungjoc650, what did that baseball do to you? #HRDerby pic.twitter.com/AoZRNz4qGu
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 14, 2015
Albert Pujols up now...He is the only baseball player to scream at me in a clubhouse. This was a few years ago in the old visitor’s clubhouse in Wrigley Field, which might have been the smallest in the big leagues. Pujols is a very large man. He’s an even bigger man when he is in a bad mood and screaming -- even bigger when screaming at you. Still not sure what he was mad about but key life moments were flashing through my mind...Then like a summer thunderstorm whatever made him angry disappeared. Simply washed off his face. He smiled, stuck out his hand, crushed my palm in a grip that could crush granite, inited me to sit on a stool beside him and we had a wonderful chat. My hand may or may not have been shaking as I took notes.
Really?
Earlier this month, this Kris Bryant card sold for $15,100 pic.twitter.com/YE0VHRkFXz
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 14, 2015
Kris Bryant’s father Mike is pitching to him tonight. Great story of how a young Mike Bryant once pestered Ted Williams for hitting advice. Turns out Mike Bryant asked Clayton Kershaw for an autograph AND a selfie today.
Think about this... Kris Bryant is in the Home Run Derby just 87 days after his big league debut. Amazing. 87 days!! 87
Yes, that’s Sean Casey folks, known better for hitting balls than catching them!
Yes @TheMayorsOffice just caught a ball all the way up here at HR derby! I hid behind him @KMillar15 pic.twitter.com/wCrY2WYBjW
— Chris Rose (@ChrisRose) July 14, 2015
This is why Pederson was my favorite coming into this contest...he just beat Machado with more than a minute left.
Pederson came just feet from clearing the ballpark in the right field seats, then actually does in center field! For those who love batting practice homers, this Pederson-Machado battle is heaven
Compared to Machado, who swings so smooth, Pederson holds a giant bat and looks like he is trying to kill every pitch
Who needs Bryce Harper in this contest? Manny Machado is the Beltway’s best slugger tonight.
Manny Machado up. The competition between he and Pederson (my personal favorite to win this contest) could be a classic. Machado doesn’t get the notoriety the other young stars get but he is a supreme talent. If he is ever moved to shortstop (his natural position) he will be the best shortstop in the American League.
I once watched Ken Griffey, Jr. take batting practice in the Kingdome with an aluminum bat. I’ve never seen baseballs hit harder or farther. No way could they every allow metal bats in pro ball.
This head-to-head competition is actually exciting. Frazier’s home run burst ties Fielder and then pushes him ahead in extra time. Fireworks bursting at the ballpark, crowd going nuts. For the first time in years I’m actually entertained by the Home Run Derby.
Frazier is making this interesting...
ESPN asks Prince Fielder about his strategy in this contest: “I try to hit every ball out basically.” You don’t say.
Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier strutting into the box. Unfortunately he’s up against Fielder who already has 13 home runs. Good luck.
TV is making a bit of a deal about a minor league hitting coach, Sandy Guerrero, pitching to Prince Fielder. Guerrero has helped Fielder win two other Home Run Derbys. This is THE most underrated aspect of the Derby. The hitter and the man pitching to him must be in synch. I once had a long conversation with Eno Guerrero, the batting practice pitcher who David Ortiz picked to help him win a Home Run Derby. Unfortunately Guerrero couldn’t throw his batting practice tosses in the right groove and Ortiz flopped. The pressure on the guys pitching a home run derby is worse than that on the guys hitting.
Here comes Prince Fielder...he knows a thing or two about winning the Home Run Derby.
The #HomeRunDerby winner should stay & try 10 straight fastballs from Aroldis Chapman.
— Jake Query (@jakequery) July 14, 2015
Donaldson seems totally locked in. He took a timeout in the middle of a home run groove and then smashed another immediately after stepping back in.
Good heavens, Donaldson just launched a ball to the upper half of the upper deck. Graphics say it was 465 feet.
Now comes Josh Donaldson who immediately crushes two to left!
So here’s where the new, stupid rules take effect...baseball wants to speed up the Home Run Derby but Rizzo not only got a time out but now he gets his 30 extra seconds added on at the end after a long delay. But he does get an extra home run and finishes with eight. Not bad given his terrible start.
and there’s finally a home run for Rizzo...
Anthony Rizzo up first..he’s lunging and swinging at pitches in front of him. He looks nervous. One minute in and he has no homers
And we are off..
Ken Griffey, Jr. throwing out the first pitch. I was lucky enough to have worked in Seattle toward the end of his time there, before injuries robbed him of his skills. Still perhaps the sweetest swing of any hitter of his time and he could just crush baseballs when he was on.
I like the touch of each hitter carrying his bat with him to the big stage when they are introduced. Sort of a caveman dragging the club out to the hunt kind of look.
Some interesting facts I learned on ESPN’s hourlong Home Run Derby pregame show (because you have to fill programming on 17 networks somehow)...Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark has always been known as a hitters paradise but why? Certainly the small dimensions help but a huge aid is the giant gap in the upper deck behind the third base dugout. This creates a sort of wind tunnel that can propel balls out to right field. Great news for left-handed pull hitters like Prince Fielder and Joc Pederson. The humid summer heat also makes balls farther as well -- something every hitter who plays in the heavy cool air home run graveyards in Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego have long known.
There are, of course, new rules for the Home Run Derby and they are simple until they get confusing. Basically, hitters are seeded by their first half home run totals, they will be matched against the player next to them on the home run leaderboard. They will have four minutes (shortened from five) to hit as many home runs as they can... UNLESS...they hit a ball more than 475 feet in which case they get an extra 30 seconds (one minute for for two homers over 420 feet). So basically this will be convoluted and the Home Run Derby will still take a long time to finish meaning the new rules will prove meaningless.
Good evening everyone. Welcome to our liveblog of the Home Run Derby. We have more than two hours of bating practice home runs ahead of us so hopefully we can have some fun. I’m a veteran of two Home Run Derbys (covering, not participating!) so I have a few memories from watching in the press box. What are your favorite Home Run Derby moments? Let us know. drop me a line at les.carpenter@theguardian.com or tweet me at @lescarpenter.
Les will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s DJ Gallo on the Pirates recent fortunes:
Well, now you’ve done it, Pirates. You’ve ruined everything.
Not so long ago, your fans were completely happy with a simple .500 season. After a American professional sports record 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 through 2012 – with epic collapses ending the 2011 and 2012 campaigns – simply breaking through with a winning record in 2013 was reason for celebration. The wildcard victory and spot in the divisional round that came with it were icing on the quite palatable cake of mathematical non-failure. Another wildcard spot last year, which lasted a few innings before being mowed down by Madison Bumgarner and the Giants, was more of the same: evidence that the demons of the ‘90s and ‘00s were exorcised and that the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club had achieved semi-relevance. Huzzah!
