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CITIZENS BANK BALLPARK (Philadelphia) – Talk about a star-studded cast of sluggers. This year’s Home Run Derby was set against the backdrop of a sea of red-jerseyed Phillies fans that overtook Citizens Bank Park to watch their hometown sluggers represent their city. The lineup consisted of the Red Sox’ Willson Contreras, the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker, the White Sox’ Munetaka Murakami, the Rays’ Junior Caminero, the Yankees’ Ben Rice, the Royals’ Jac Caglianone, and finally, the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Mike Trout’s prediction of who would win the Derby was, without hesitation, “Harp.” But he was quick to throw in some support for Caminero, too, saying, “But I think Junior might. Junior’s nice.” Let’s just say Trout is exceptionally better at hitting baseballs than he is at forecasting the future. Here are my takeaways from yet another exciting Home Run Derby: 1. Walker, 12. Schwarber, 11. Schwarber advanced to the finals after knocking out Contreras in the semifinals. He was made for this. On the biggest stages under the brightest lights, Schwarber is a showman. In the final round, Schwarber was so in the zone that he even started walking to first base after his 10th home run of the final round before returning to the plate. After each swing and every ensuing home run, his Phillies All-Star teammates in Harper, outfielder Brandon Marsh, starter Jesús Luzardo and closer Jhoan Duran spilled onto the field and raised their arms as they hyped up Schwarber. When Scharber hit his seventh home run with five swings still remaining, Harper declared to his teammates, “It’s over.” He finished his Derby with 11 home runs in the final round, and then it was up to Walker to try and spoil the storybook ending in front of 43,000 Phillies fans. And spoil he did. Walker got off to a slow start in the final round, but then he homered five straight times to tie Schwarber at 11 apiece. With his final swing, Walker sent it to left field, securing his 12th and final home run. Walker became the first-ever St. Louis Cardinals player to win the Home Run Derby. “The homers that I hit, I’m more easy. I’m not forcing it,” Walker said after winning it all. “When I do, I start missing the ball. So in a Home Run Derby, it’s a different approach. I wanted to swing easy, and see what happens.” Walker’s voice was raspy as he sat on the dais in the Phillies press conference room wearing a backwards red Cardinals hat and a black bomber jacket. He said he didn’t mind disrupting Schwarber and Philly’s fairytale ending. He viewed getting incessantly booed in the final round as an excellent experience for what he wants to accomplish next. “My goal is to win a World Series,” he said. “I feel like it’s going to happen then too. So I’m going to face it at some point in my life. I think I’d rather face it now.” 2. Hometown Heroes Battle It Out The first round came down to the two Phillies. Only four of the eight participants advanced to the second round, and after Contreras and Walker each cranked 13 home runs and Caminero hit 12, there was only one spot left. Schwarber and Harper were the final two sluggers to step into the box in the first round. Schwarber, who was in the batting cage getting practice swings in before his name was called, got off to a rough start. He started 0-for-5, and the home crowd started to get nervous. Schwarber shook it off, told his throwing partner, Phillies assistant hitting coach Rafael Pena, “We’re good.” And he stepped back into his batting stance. Suddenly, Schwarber went on a ridiculous run, slugging 10 home runs in his final 14 swings. Then it came down to Harper. He needed 11 home runs to surpass his teammate and advance to the second round. If they tied, then Harper held the advantage because he hit a home run farther than Schwarber did. Alas, Harper fell short with eight homers and was eliminated from the Derby after the first round. In 2018, the Nationals’ Bryce Harper beat the Cubs’ Kyle Schwarber in the finals to win the Home Run Derby. Perhaps it was only fair that Schwarber was the one who knocked Harper out this year. “I wanted both of us to move on,” Schwarber told MLB Network’s Lauren Shehadi on the field afterward. “If I would’ve done my job a little bit better, probably would’ve had a better chance for both of us to move on. But super proud of him and what he means to us as a team, us as an organization, and us as Philadelphia. We’re lucky to have No. 3 on our side, I’ll tell you that.” 3. New Format, More Takes This year’s Home Run Derby introduced a new swing-based format that eliminated the timer, which had been in place since 2015, and the bonus round. Eight players still made up the field, but instead of aiming to hit as many home runs as possible in a timed round, participants started each round with a set number of swings. The first round had 20 swings, the second round had 15, and the third and final round also had 15. The one caveat: if a player homered on his final swing of a round, he can keep swinging until he fails to hit one out. For those of us who have been watching the Home Run Derby for a long time, it was pretty jarring to see the timer disappear on Monday. It took some time to adjust to the flow of the new swing-based format, which in general felt more laid-back without the pressure of the clock ticking. It also led to more takes. Since only their swings counted, players were free to take as many pitches from their throwing partners as they wanted. Contreras was putting on a show in the first round, slugging 13 home runs in 19 swings. Then, when he had one final swing remaining, he took four pitches before he saw one he wanted to hit. By the time he took his fourth pitch, the crowd venomously booed him, because they wanted to see some action. This back-and-forth of taking pitches and getting booed continued in the semifinals round, but as usual, the always-fiery Contreras didn’t seem to mind the noise. 4. Rice Doesn’t Cook Historically, the Yankees have performed well at the Home Run Derby. The Bronx Bombers are tied for the most Derby champions in MLB history with four individual winners: Aaron Judge (2017), Robinson Cano (2011), Jason Giambi (2002), and Tino Martinez (1997). So, the pressure was on for Rice, the latest Yankee to participate in the Derby, to go the distance. But Rice didn’t cook on Monday night. It took him a long time and too many swings to get into a groove, and by the time he did, he only hit seven home runs, which was the worst performance out of all the contestants. No matter the final result, it was clear that Rice had too much fun participating in his first-ever Home Run Derby. During pre-Derby introductions, Rice received the loudest boos out of all eight participants from the Philly crowd. Rice loved it. He laughed hysterically hearing the boos and shouted, “Bring it on.” When Rice finished the first round, red in the face and completely exhausted, he smiled and hugged his dad, his throwing partner, before walking off the field. “The boos were crazy, especially in the opening ceremony,” Rice said. “It was so cool. I always like to say, ‘They don’t boo nobodies.’ It was just really cool to have them rain down on me, even in the round, too. That was fun.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

CITIZENS BANK BALLPARK (Philadelphia) — Mike Trout circled this date months ago. Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game sits 45 minutes from Millville, New Jersey, where Trout grew up rooting for the Phillies and bleeding Eagles green. Getting back here was personal. Staying healthy was the hard part. Trout hadn’t started an All-Star Game since 2019. He hadn’t even been selected to one since 2023. “I’m never taking anything for granted in this game,” Trout told me on Monday. This year, fans voted Trout in as a starting outfielder, a slash line of .237/.390/.473, 18 homers, 39 RBIs, and his most stolen bases (seven) since his 2019 MVP season carrying him there. Then a hamstring strain in mid-June threatened to keep him home again. But, just 17 missed games later, Trout was back in the Angels’ lineup as a designated hitter just days before the All-Star break. He was healthy and headed to Philly. For the 12-time All-Star who has spent a career as the face of this game, it wasn’t just a return. It was a relief. “You don’t know when your last game is,” Trout said. “When an injury can pop up. Especially the last few years, it’s been a little bit tough for me. I’m just excited to start.” It’s easy to see that starting the All-Star Game means a lot to Trout. Trout found it tough to explain just how meaningful it is for him to be leading off for the American League on Tuesday. He slowed down when reflecting on how difficult the past few years have been for him as he dealt with a laundry list of injuries that limited him to playing just 396 games for five seasons from 2021-2025, or roughly 79 games per season. Plus, he didn’t want to let down his family and friends with a big contingent scheduled to make the short trip to Philly this week. “Well, I only have 20 tickets,” Trout said. “I mean, that’s a lot. So I had to cut it down a little bit. I know a lot of people that are coming. It’s been on the calendar for a while.” Trout’s celebrity status runs deep. Besides pitcher Justin Verlander, who announced he’s retiring at the end of this season and is at the All-Star Game as the Commissioner’s Legend Pick, Trout had the largest media scrum among all AL players on Monday. And Trout also has a huge fan in the AL’s All-Star clubhouse, though he’s completely unaware that this player grew up idolizing him years before he became, well, Mike Trout. “I learned a lot from him — and he doesn’t know it,” fellow AL All-Star and Twins outfielder Byron Buxton told me on Monday. “But I learned a lot from him growing up. I even watched him in the minor leagues.” Buxton and Trout share more similarities than their star power. Both players are homegrown, one-team-for-life talents. And both, oddly enough, once wore a Cedar Rapids Kernels uniform. The minor-league franchise spent 20 years as the Angels’ Single-A affiliate before flipping to the Twins in 2013. Trout came first. He played 81 games there in 2010, an 18-year-old outfielder on his way up. Two years later, after a show-stopping big-league debut when Trout recorded the highest WAR (10.5) in MLB, he won the AL Rookie of the Year award, and Cedar Rapids hung his picture at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Buxton followed in 2013, a 19-year-old outfielder playing 68 games in a Cedar Rapids uniform in the same ballpark. “Every day I walked in, I got to see his picture,” Buxton said. “Man, he was on the top of my list as someone I watched all the time.” Even that small similarity with Trout — playing for the same minor-league affiliate as him thanks to a team change — used to remind Buxton that he was on the right path in his baseball journey. Buxton even tried to copy Trout’s physical build. Even though the Twins outfielder debuted in the big leagues in 2015 as a skinny speedster, he added 21 pounds of muscle before the 2019 season to try and add more slug to his game. “Coming up, he played the game 110%,” Buxton said of emulating Trout’s game. “100% down the line. Putting his body on the line, and things like that. It was something that, when I came up, I was like, alright. That’s how I wanna be. Obviously I wasn’t his size, or like the body build that he has. You had to kind of find that the more you played throughout your career. And it’s something that, over the years, I figured out my frame to where I look back and I’m like, alright, I’m like him now.” This is the second time that Buxton has shared a clubhouse with Trout, both having been named All-Stars in 2022 despite Trout not appearing in the game. He would’ve shared a lineup with him if the Minnesota outfielder wasn’t on the injured list with a hip strain. While they’re both in Philly, does Buxton plan on telling Trout how much he influenced his career? “Nah, I’ll let him do his own thing,” Buxton said. “Maybe after he retires. Which is a long time from now for him.” In reality, Trout should be used to being a hero to his peers. Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, who was selected by NL manager Dave Roberts to be a part of his All-Star coaching staff, told me that Trout garners a ton of respect from players of all ages, all around the league, because they admire his tenacity. After dealing with numerous injuries, particularly later in his career, Trout is still playing at an MVP-caliber level when he’s healthy enough to take the field. “He’s had his struggles, but he’s come out on the other side of it,” Marmol said. “He can speak to both sides of handling failure and success, and the longevity that he brings to the table speaks for itself.” Like Buxton, so many of this year’s All-Stars grew up watching the three-time MVP become a staple at every All-Star Game. Royals All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. was asked multiple times in his media scrum on Monday who he most enjoyed watching growing up, and every time, his answer was Trout. From 2012-2019, Trout had an incredible run of being selected for eight consecutive All-Star Games. Not only was he statistically the best player in the major leagues for the majority of that run, but he also embodied what it meant to play the game the right way. “It’s so cool to share a locker room with him,” Tigers All-Star infielder Kevin McGonigle told me. “Lately, I’ve appreciated the way he plays the game and understanding what it takes to get his body ready to be on the field. It’s a grind, and he’s been doing this a long time.” “He was always the guy I looked up to, just by how he plays the game,” Orioles All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman told me. “His attitude and his ability. It seemed like he played the game right, and in a way that I really admired. Just seemed like he goes about stuff in the right way. And I love that. It’s been awesome to get to know him a little better. Talk with him a little bit. He’s just an awesome guy and a great player.” Trout is too modest to spend any time thinking about how much of an impact he’s made on his peers and baseball fans alike. Still, he understands that part of being a veteran is imparting some wisdom to the younger generation. So, on Monday, he shared some advice with All-Star first-timers. “Just enjoy it,” Trout said. “It goes by quick. So slow everything down. It’s pretty simple. These next two days go by quick, so enjoy every moment. Capture it. Take pictures. Enjoy it with your family. It’s a special honor to be here.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports