MINNEAPOLIS - Todd Frazier gave it his best shot in Monday's Home Run
Derby, but the pride of Toms River, N.J. came up short as Oakland's Yoenis
Cespedes won his second consecutive title in the event with a convincing 9-1
victory in the final round.
Frazier beat Justin Morneau in a first-round tiebreaker to advance,
then the Reds third baseman beat Troy Tulowitzki, 6-2, to move on to the semi-finals.
Frazier hit only one home run in that round, but Giancarlo Stanton -
who put on a display with six tape-measure shots in the first round - went
homerless, allowing Frazier to advance to the finals.
Cespedes also got through the first round on a tiebreaker, beating A's
teammate Josh Donaldson. Cespedes moved on with a 9-3 win over Adam Jones to
reach the semi-finals, where he knocked out Jose Bautista by a 7-4 score.
Bautista hit 10 homers in the first round, the most of any hitter in any round.
"People that don't want to be in this, they've got issues,"
Frazier said earlier in the day. "It's the best thing in the world, doing
this in front of so many people on this kind of stage.
"It's what we all dreamed of, playing home run derby in our back
yards when we were kids."
Frazier has been on the big stage, of course, since he was 12, famously
winning the Little League World Series and then getting stand next to Derek
Jeter at shortstop before a game at Yankee Stadium.
"I think playing in front of 40,000 people in Little League helps
me in this type of atmosphere,'' he said. "It's going to be great. You get
to go out and crush the ball.''
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