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It’s time for the All-Star Home Run Derby 2022! Some of the sport’s biggest names are in Hollywood, targeting the stands at Dodger Stadium.
The derby will be headlined by back-to-back derby champion Pete Alonso. How do the rest of the contestants compare to the home run king? Can someone take the belt off the Mets slugger known as “Polar Bear”?
This is your one-stop shop for everything Home Run Derby, from round results to live updates to pre-derby predictions and footage from ESPN MLB pundits Alden Gonzalez, Buster Olney, Jeff Passan and David Schoenfield.
Let the fun begin!
Watch: T-Mobile Home Run Derby on ESPN (8 p.m. ET)
MLB All-Star Home Run Derby Bracket
(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 homers) defeats Corey Seager (24 homers)
Pete Alonso (20 homers) defeats Ronald Acuna Jr. (19 homers)
Juan Soto (18 home runs) defeats Jose Ramirez (17 home runs)
Albert Pujols (13 home runs) vs. Kyle Schwarber
live updates
Pay your respects to a legendary player
Pujols, the oldest player to ever compete in a derby, might have been the sentimental favorite, but he was hardly the favorite to win a competition that rewards both endurance and brute strength. With just a home run in the first 56 seconds, he got off to a slow start and had to take an early timeout. Not a good sign. Some of us shed a few tears for Pujols at that moment. And then we lost a few more as all the All-Stars surrounded Pujols before his final 30 seconds to honor one of the great careers in major league history. A true legend.
Soto heats up over Ramirez defeat
Soto keeps going – he doesn’t even need his 60 second overtime to beat Ramirez. His longest blast was his 17th of the round: a 482-foot rocket just below the right-center concourse. You get the feeling he might just be warming up for a couple of Titanic homers over the next two rounds.
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Juan Soto eliminated Jose Ramirez in the first round with 18 homers and celebrated with an emphatic bat flip.
Ramirez puts pressure on Soto
Ramirez didn’t show the raw power of Rodriguez or Alonso – no surprise there – but finished with 17 home runs, just enough pressure that Soto won’t be able to advance into the second round. Soto defeated Shohei Ohtani in this epic overtime duel last year, including a Statcast-era record of 520 feet. Let’s see if he can pull a Willie Stargell and knock one out of the ballpark.
The three-peat dream lives on
One thing about Alonso in the home run derby: he never panics. He was in trouble midway through his lap, struggling to find the perfect launch angle and instead hitting low liners that fell short of the warning lane. But he found his momentum and pushed past Acuna Jr. with just under 30 seconds remaining in his bonus round. It wasn’t a dominant round, but the dream of the Dreitorf lives on.
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Pete Alonso gets into the clutch in the first round of the home run derby when he hits enough things to eliminate Ronald Acuna Jr.
Seattle praises J-Rod
Rodriguez became the first Mariner to reach the semi-finals of the derby since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1998 by beating Seager. Guess who’s there today: The Kid himself. Griffey’s advice: “Let Julio be Julio.”
Rodriguez hot out of the gate
Beginner nerves? Not for Julio Rodriguez. The 21-year-old phenom put on one of the most impressive rounds in home run derby history, finishing with 32 home runs. He started off hitting a series of high-flying balls that scraped the fence, turned into some low, screaming liners that overcame the fence, and then started hitting a few that cleared the whole damn stadium.
Junior recognizes good content when he sees it. pic.twitter.com/qgGGrfFYEH
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 19, 2022
We’re a hitter, but the message’s been sent: Julio coming for your crown, Pete Alonso.
We are on the way!
The 2022 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby is underway, and Mariners phenom Julio Rodriguez is starting in Los Angeles.
Pre-derby predictions
Who will win the Home Run Derby and who will they beat in the finals?
Gonzales: Soto wasn’t happy about being caught up in trade rumors just before the All-Star break, and this is the perfect place for the game’s best straight hitter to channel his anger. Soto has been red hot this month and will dethrone Pete Alonso in the final. He’ll do this by hitting a couple of backfield homers as well.
Olney: Soto will take on Alonso and it will be like Ali-Frazier, with Soto just barely beating the defending champion.
passers-by: Alonso of course. He is the most successful home run hitter in the world. He knows how to win the derby because he did 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 emerged victorious. He’ll do the same again this year, outplaying NL East opponent Soto in the final.
Schoenfield: It’s the year of the Mariners! Rodriguez was on fire and he’s not lacking in confidence. He’ll hit some low lasers on the left-center stands and win like Alonso did in 2019 as a rookie – beating Alonso in the semis and Schwarber in the final.
Who can hit the longest home run of the night and how far?
Gonzales: Acuna is averaging 437 feet per home run this season, the longest in the majors. Since his rookie year in 2018, he’s hit 13 home runs of 450 feet or longer, ranking second to CJ Cron — despite missing a lot of time with a cruciate ligament tear. Three years ago, Acuna was out and about in all fields and produced a nice spray card, but he lost to Alonso in the second round. If he decides to get lucky this year, he’ll vacate Dodger Stadium a couple of times. One could even reach 510 feet.
Olney: Alonso will hit a 512-foot homer and reignite conversation about a juiced ball.
passers-by: The amazing power of Soto is so free, so simple, that you take it for granted. At an event like the Home Run Derby, the number of homers counts more than distance when it comes to winning, but not heart and mind. 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: Only five homers were hit from Dodger Stadium during an action game – two by Willie Stargell and one each by Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza and Giancarlo Stanton. The longest of these was one by Stargells at an estimated 506 feet. Not only will we see a few fly out of the stadium during the competition, we’ll see a few longer than 506. And the longest: Schwarber will hit a 522-foot home run.
Albert Pujols is taking part in his final home run derby tonight, what are your predictions for the 42 year old?
Gonzales: I let him shock everyone by beating the NL home run leader Schwarber in the first round. Never underestimate the pride and competitiveness of Pujols. He wasn’t, well, Albert Pujols because his racquet speed isn’t fast enough anymore to match the cartoonish speeds of today’s game; it has nothing to do with its raw power. He knows this event, having participated in the first Time Derby in 2015, and it will be Soto who quickly eliminates him in Round 2.
Olney: He’ll 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.
passers-by: He’ll do better than expected, meaning his first-round matchup against Schwarber won’t end with Schwarber having a minute left on the clock. Pujols is too competitive, too proud to let that happen. But in the end he’ll get respect for pushing the top seed…but not the W he desires.
Schoenfield: One and done. I mean not a home run. He’ll crack a dozen in the first round, but Schwarber will KO him.
What’s the one moment we’ll all be talking about long after this HR derby is over?
Gonzales: The last round. Soto versus Alonso. Two division competitors go to work. The best straight batsman of this generation against one of the most famous derby contenders of all time, in a re-run of last year’s Coors Field semifinals. It was largely coincidence that Soto and Alonso ended up on opposite sides of this year’s bracket and it will ultimately result in one of the most electrifying rounds this event has ever produced.
Olney: Soto shuffles and drops his racquet after putting up a big number in the championship round.
passers-by: An Alonso-Rodriguez matchup in the semifinals would be everything: king versus prodigy, right-handed thunder versus right-handed thunder, a possible crowning glory versus a national coming-out party. While Rodriguez may draw the crowd’s ire in the first round for edging out Seager, a longtime Dodger, he’ll win them back with a show in the next round… only to be snubbed by the champion who isn’t ready yet is to give up, his crown is thwarted.
Schoenfield: How about passing the torch? Rodriguez was 6 months old when Pujols made his first All-Star game as a rookie in 2001. Now we have the game’s next big star in focus. They won’t compete unless they meet in the finals, but I’m sure we’ll get a Pujols-Rodriguez hug at some point – from one generation to the next.
