PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Schwarber kept his bid for a Home Run Derby title in his home park alive when the Phillies’ slugger and major league home run leader hit nine in the second round for the fan favorite to top Boston's Willson Contreras, who was soundly booed on every swing and finished with eight.
Schwarber advanced to face St. Louis' Jordan Walker in the final round.
The Philadelphia fans provided the boisterous soundtrack for on every swing
between 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs World Series champion teammates Schwarber and Contreras.
Schwarber dropped his head after his first three swings of the second round failed to clear the fence. He reeled off four straight homers as he did in the first round to get the crowd roaring in every pitch, most pulled by the left-handed slugger into the right-field sections of seats in the first or second decks.
Contreras heard boos that grew louder with every home run and cascaded when he socked his eighth to inch closer to Schwarber. His final swing was instead a flyball that landed on the All-Star logo cut into the short-centerfield grass.
“This place is electric,” Schwarber said. “Follow the energy. Follow the energy they bring.”
Walker still had seven swings left when he hit his sixth homer of the second round to eliminate Tamp Bay’s Junior Caminero. Caminero — last year’s runner-up to Seattle’s Cal Raleigh — hit five on his 15 swings after he had 12 total in the first round.
Wearing a backward cap just like Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr, the 24-year-old and 2020 first-round pick is having a breakout season with 22 homers for the Cardinals.
Bryce Harper hit only eight home runs in the first round and was the final slugger of the round to try and advance. He provided a late jolt with Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park going wild trying to will Harper into one more round.
Harper won in 2018 in Washington when he played for the Nationals.
Kansas City's Jac Caglianone and New York Yankees slugger Ben Rice also failed to advance.
Contreras and Walker each hit 13, and Caminero had 12.
Schwarber failed to launch one of his famed Schwarbombs until his sixth swing, then connected on his seventh, eighth and ninth in a four-homer stretch that harkened back to his four-homer game last season again Atlanta.
He could only watch as Harper failed to join him. Schwarber, then with the Chicago Cubs, made the finals in 2018 at Nationals Park before losing to Harper.
“Bittersweet,” Schwarber said after the first round Monday. “I wanted both of us to move on.”
MLB ditched the timed clock this season and returned to a swing format, with each hitter continuing to swing if he went deep on his final one.
The extra time between swings gave hitters time to track their home runs — and Philly a smidge more time to unleash those throaty boos at Contreras.
Each player had 20 swings in the first round and the top four advanced. Hitters were seeded for the second round, where No. 1 faces 4 and 2 meets 3.
Each player takes 15 swings in the second round, with batters homering on their final swings continuing until not homering.
Schwarber and Harper — the first pair of teammates to participate in the Derby since 2018 — received roaring ovations when famed ring announcer Michael Buffer introduced them ahead of the competition.
As for the other six sluggers in the field, all wearing their home jerseys with red, white and blue uniform numbers?
Yeah, they were about booed out of the ballpark, with the loudest jeers saved for Rice. He gamely laughed as he walked out of his Liberty Bell entrance.
Harper — who said earlier Monday this would be his last Derby — waved his arms and exhorted the crowd to get louder as he walked to the home plate platform placed at second base. Harper about broke the ring ropes as he shook them like a pro wrestler, and the Philly crowd went bonkers for the star known as The Showman.
The ball-shagging kids in the outfield were even booed.
The Derby's public address announcer implored the fans to cheer during some quiet stretches when homers — non-Phillies edition — were hit.
The fans did get a rise when Caglianone smoked one into Ryan Howard territory into the third deck in right field. Contreras socked 'em into the rarified air of the left field upper deck. One homered cleared the last row of stands in that section and bounced off the concourse in front of a bar. His 490-footer was the longest of the first round.
Caminero — last year's runner-up to Seattle's Cal Raleigh — watched stunned as his final swing just hooked foul in left field and stuck his homer total at 12.
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.
This was the first Home Run Derby and All-Star Game held at Citizens Bank Park since it opened in 2004 and the first derby in Philadelphia since Barry Bonds outslugged Mark McGwire in 1996 to win an afternoon event in front of thousands of empty seats at Veterans Stadium.
This derby was sold out and aired on Netflix for the first time, with the streamer getting into the game this season with a three-event package. Netflix already aired the opening night game, and the third attraction is the Field of Dreams game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 13.
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