MINNEAPOLIS — Baseball’s annual equivalent of the Big Gulp finally, mercifully ended late Monday night when Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes defended his Home Run Derby title at Target Field.
Cespedes, who prevailed last year at Citi Field, outlasted New Jersey native Todd Frazier of the Reds 9-1 in the championship round, which concluded at 10:49 local time. By doing so, the righty-hitting outfielder became the first Derby winner to repeat since Ken Griffey, Jr. did so in 1998 and 1999, although what’s truly amazing is that someone keeps track of this.
A one-hour rain delay at the competition’s outset only sharpened the pain of those on hand. The Derby began in a downpour and, after the clouds subsided for a while, ended in a driving mist. It felt like an NFL playoff game, only without any suspense or strategy.
In the Derby’s rejiggered format, Toronto’s Jose Bautista and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton jumped straight from the first round to the semifinals by slugging the most homers in their respective leagues — 10 and six, respectively. Stanton temporarily elevated the event to something better than dreadful by putting on a first-round display of tape-measure shots, including a blast high up in the left-field bleachers — nearly exiting the ballpark altogether — that ESPN estimated as a 510-foot shot if it had gone unimpeded.
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Whether Stanton fired all of his bullets or whether the long break threw off his timing, Stanton put up a goose egg in the NL semis, allowing Frazier to advance to the finals by hitting just one homer. The American League produced a similar if more compelling semi, as the warm Cespedes, having ripped nine homers in the quarterfinals, pounded seven more in the semis while the cold Bautista hit just four.
In his first Derby competition, the Dodgers’ exciting, second-year outfielder Yasiel Puig hit zero home runs while hitting off Jose Cano, the father of former Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano. Yet in a way, Puig was the night’s true winner, as he could have departed the premises at that juncture if he so desired.