He started off slow, but as the night went along Oakland Athletics’ slugger Yoenis Cespedes heated up in a big way. In the finals of the 2014 MLB All-Star Homerun Derby, Cespedes defeated Cincinnati Reds’ third baseman Todd Frazier to take home his second straight Homerun Derby Championship.
This year’s derby was done in a tournament style with all competitors taking cuts in the first round. The player with the most homeruns on both the National and American League side automatically advanced to the final of their respective league. The next two highest would face off in a head to head battle with the winner of that battle to face the leader from the first round. The bottom two scores from each league in the first round will be eliminated.
In the first round, Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays led the way with 10 homeruns, as he secured the second round bye on the American League side. Adam Jones’ four dingers were also enough for him to advance to the second round. Both of the Oakland A’s in the competition hit three homeruns in the opening round, but Cespedes slugged two in the swing-off to Josh Donaldson’s one to advance. Hometown hero Brian Dozier only hit two homeruns, joining Donaldson as the two guys to get eliminated in the first round from the American League.
Giancarlo Stanton had six homers in the first round to lead the way for the National League, which made him automatically advance to the third round. NL Captain Troy Tulowitzki also advanced with his four homerun first round showing. Justin Morneau and Todd Frazier hit two dingers a piece, and Los Angeles Dodgers’ standout Yasiel Puig struggled through his seven outs without a homerun. Frazier knocked out Morneau in the swing-off, advancing to the second round.
Frazier was able to catch fire in the second round as he eliminated his captain with six long balls to Tulowitzki’s two, setting up a NL final between Frazier and Stanton. Cespedes put on a second round show with nine homeruns to advance over Jones who hit three.
The improbable run continued in incredibly terrible fashion for Frazier as he advanced past Stanton in the NL final. Frazier was up first and only hit one homerun. The powerful Miami Marlins’ slugger then stepped to the plate and put up a goose egg. Miraculously, Frazier advanced to the finals. Cespedes hit seven dingers in the AL final, taking down Bautista who hit four.
Frazier appeared to be completely overmatched in the final, as Cespedes defeated him with nine homeruns to Frazier's one.
Cespedes is only the second player in the history of the derby to win in back-to-back years (Ken Griffey Jr. won it in 1998 and 1999). He hit 30 bombs on the night. Cespedes is an incredibly talented player with a ton of raw talent and power. At 28-years-old, Cespedes not only has an extremely bright future on the field, expect him to light up the scoreboard in the Homerun Derby for a very long time.