Seattle's Cal Raleigh to face Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero for Home Run Derby title
ATLANTA (AP) — Seattle's Cal Raleigh and Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero advanced to the final round of the All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday night.
Pittsburgh's Oneil Cruz hit the longest homer, a 513-foot drive over Truist Park's right-center field seats in the first round but was eliminated by Raleigh 19-13 in the semifinals after Caminero beat Minnesota's Byron Buxton 8-7.
Atlanta's Matt Olson, Washington's James Wood, the New York Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. and the Athletics' Brent Rooker were eliminated in the first round of the annual power show.
Cruz and Caminero each hit 21 long balls and Buxton had 20 in the opening round. Raleigh and Rooker had 17 apiece, but Raleigh advanced on the tiebreaker of their longest homer, 470.61 feet to 470.53.
Cruz's long drive was the hardest-hit at 118 mph.
The longest derby homer since Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver's Coors Field in 2021. Last year, the longest drive at Arlington, Texas, was 473 feet by Atlanta's Marcell Ozuna.
Raleigh, who leads the major leagues with 38 homers, was pitched to by his father, Todd, former coach of Tennessee and Western Carolina. His younger brother Todd Raleigh Jr. did the catching.
Just the second Derby switch-hitter after Baltimore's Adley Rutschman in 2023, Raleigh hit his first eight left-handed, took a timeout, then hit seven right-handed. Going back to lefty, he then hit two more in the bonus round and stayed lefty for the semifinals.
Wood hit 16 homers, including a 486-foot shot and one that landed on the roof of the Chop House behind the right-field wall. Olson, disappointing his hometown fans, finished with 15 and was eliminated in the first round for the second time.
Chisholm hit just three homers.
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