A record 221 dingers and more Derby facts
Harper hits 3 straight at 440-plus; Baez hammers 479-footer
It was a memorable, record-breaking night in the nation's capital as eight competitors battled it out in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Nationals Park.
In the end, the home favorite triumphed. Washington's Bryce Harper, buoyed by the crowd, walloped 19 final-round home runs -- the last during a 30-second bonus period -- to take a dramatic walk-off victory over Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs.
When the dust settled, 221 homers had been launched into the humid D.C. air, setting a Derby record. The previous mark was 203 in 2016, and last year's event at Marlins Park saw 195 dingers. All of that added up to more than 16 miles worth of homers, according to Statcast™ -- or nearly half the distance from Nationals Park to Baltimore's Camden Yards.
Here is a look at some of the notable facts and figures from Monday's competition:
HARPER RISES TO THE OCCASION
• Harper hit six home runs over the final 29 seconds of the final round (prior to his 30-second bonus period) to tie Schwarber at 18 homers. Those included three straight with distances of more than 440 feet -- 452 feet (112 mph exit velocity) with 23 seconds remaining, 444 feet (106 mph exit velocity) with 18 seconds left, and 478 feet (111 mph exit velocity) with eight seconds left.
• Harper had no problems earning himself the bonus 30 seconds at the end of each round -- he led the Derby field in home runs of 440 feet or longer, with 15. That was one more than Schwarber's total of 14 blasts of 440-plus feet. To put that in context, the Rangers' Joey Gallo leads MLB with five homers of 440 feet or more during games this season, and the Rockies lead all teams with 15.
• While Javier Baez had the longest home run of the night at 479 feet in the first round, Harper was responsible for each of the next three longest: 478, 473 and 467 feet. Since Statcast™ began tracking in 2015, Harper has hit one homer longer than 461feet in a game -- a 473-foot blast at Nationals Park on May 4.
• Harper also led the eight participants in home runs that exceeded the 110 mph exit-velocity mark (even though those didn't win him any bonus time). He had 12 of those rockets, again one more than Schwarber, who had 11.
• Harper appeared to get stronger as the Derby went on -- over the first two rounds, he hit a combined five homers of 450 feet or more. He equaled that in the final round.
• Harper became the first player in Nationals/Expos history to win the Home Run Derby. He is also the only player in Nationals/Expos history to finish runner-up, doing so in 2013 at Citi Field, when the Athletics' Yoenis Cespedes took home the trophy.
• Harper became the third player in Derby history to win in his home ballpark, joining the Cubs' Ryne Sandberg at Wrigley Field in 1990, and the Reds' Todd Frazier at Great American Ball Park in 2015.
A STELLAR SHOWING FOR SCHWARBER
• Although Schwarber ultimately came up short in the final, he did launch 55 homers over the three rounds, the most of anyone in the field.
• Schwarber's longest home run of the first half was tracked at 439 feet, but he popped 14 of 440 feet or longer in the Derby, one shy of Harper for the most of any hitter.
• It looked like Schwarber's night might be over in the second round, when Rhys Hoskins went first and ripped 20 homers. Schwarber then started slowly, homering just once out of his first eight swings. But he put on an impressive display from there, including a pair of streaks in which he homered on five consecutive swings. Then, in about the final 30 seconds, Schwarber parked his final five big flies to edge out Hoskins at the buzzer.
• One of Schwarber's last home runs was an absolute laser -- in the final round against Harper, he hit one 112 mph off the bat with a launch angle of just 18 degrees. The Cubs have not hit a lower home run than that in an official game since Statcast™ started tracking in 2015. They've hit six at 18 degrees, including one by Schwarber on April 24. That was a 117.1-mph screamer that set the Cubs' record for exit velocity on a home run.
THE BEST OF THE REST
• The trophy for longest home run of the night went to Baez. The Cubs' electric infielder sent a baseball a projected 479 feet into the seats in the first round, and no one topped that mark. (Harper was the only other player to break the 470-foot mark, hitting home runs of 478 feet and 473 feet in the final round.)
• The next longest home runs belonged to Hoskins, the only other player in the field to break the 460-foot mark on any of his homers. The Phillies' sophomore slugger did so twice, with a 463-foot shot as the first hitter of Round 1 and a 466-footer in Round 2, his longest of the night.
• Player Page for Max Muncy has been hitting plenty of moonshots in his breakout season for the Dodgers, and he carried that tendency into the Derby. Muncy had the highest launch angle on his home runs of any participant -- 31.7 degrees, just ahead of Jesus Aguilar's 31.5-degree average.
• Aguilar hit one real skyscraper of a home run, sending one deep with a launch angle of 40 degrees. For all the home runs Aguilar has treated Brewers fans to this year, none have been as high as that one. Aguilar's career-high launch angle on a home run in a Major League game is 39 degrees (on May 27).
• There was only one Derby participant who averaged less than 100 mph and 400 feet on his home runs. That was the Astros' Alex Bregman, with an average home run exit velocity in the Derby of 98.4 mph and an average projected home run distance of 397.3 feet. He still hit 16 homers -- whatever gets them over the fence.
• Freddie Freeman is known for his all-fields power, and he stayed consistent to his in-game approach. Five of the lefty slugger's 12 home runs in his first-round defeat went to the left of center. And the Braves first baseman stayed mostly in the middle of the field, not resorting to any dead-pull hitting.