On Monday, the Home Run Derby showcased some of the best sluggers in the MLB hitting homers out of the Reds hitter friendly ballpark.
Ken Griffey Jr threw out the first pitch, getting a nice reception from the fans as he returned to the Reds ballpark for the first time in a while.
Them, the competition began with the 8 competitors competing in the newly made bracket system. The competitors also competed with the five minute clock for the first time ever.
These 2 rule changes by new commish Manfred received outstanding reviews from critics and fans.
To start off the contest, Donaldson out homered Rizzo enabling him to move on to the semifinals.
In the next pairing, Frazier , who was helped out by the fans, beat 2 time derby champ Prince Fielder in an epic matchup. With the win, Frazier advanced to the semi- finals where he faced Donaldson in a matchup of powerful third basemen.
On the other side of the bracket , NL rookie phenom Pederson knocked out Machado to advance to the next round where he awaited the winner of Pujols vs. Bryant (another NL rookie sensation).
Albert Pujols in his return to the national stage defeated Kris Bryant to lock up the last semi-final spot.
In the semi- finals,the rookie Pederson knocked out the aging veteran Pujols to advance to the final in his first ever MlB Home Run Derby.
Then, the host team's favorite Todd Frazier out homered Josh Donaldson to advance to the final of this contest for the second straight year.
In the epic final, Todd Frazier needed 30 seconds of bonus time to upstage Pederson and take his first Home Run Derby title in front of his own team's fans and in his team's ballpark.
Now that's a pretty cool feat and now I hope that Frazier's swing won't be messed up because of all the homers that he hit.
With his enormous power, I am pretty sure that Pederson will be back in this competition in the upcoming years, looking for the win that just eluded him this year.
I loved watching the Derby and I love the new rules that made it way more exciting for both the players and the fans.
The All Star Game took place on Tuesday. In this game, the best players from the NL were matched up against the best players from the AL and the winning league gets home field advantage in the fall classic.
Before the game MLB honored the best four players from every MLB franchise. These super stars were selected by the fans online and I tjout that baseball fans everywhere made good choices with who they voted for.
Then, MLB honored the four greatest living pl. ayers. They are Wille Mays, Sandy Koufax, Johnny Bench, and Hank Aaron. These four legends were the faces of baseball during their time on the diamond and all four elderly all time greats will be recognized when they eventually die.
Then the baseball game began with Dallas Keuchal staring for the ALand Zach Greinke starting for
the NL.
Throughout the game both squads used a ton of pitchers and position players as.it's an All Star Game so both Bochy and Yost wanted to get every player their All Star spotlight and reward them for the terrific first half they put together,
The AL struck first on a lead off home run by Mike Trout off Greinke who ran up the best ERA in the MLB in the first half.
Trout would help the AL strike in the 5th inning off Kershaw and then the AL would add on in the
later innings off 2 NL All Star relievers
The final score of the game ended up being 6-3 with the AL coming out victorious and securing home field advantage for its representative in the World Series.
Mike Trout made history by taking home All Star Game MVP for the second straight year. This feat just shows you how good this 23 year old is and how he is growing into the new face of the MLB
It was an exciting 2 days in the Queen City and now I'm looking forward to the regular season starting back up. I'm really curious to see which big name players will get moved at the trade deadline and which clubs will survive the stretch run and make it into the playoffs especially the fates of Houston and Minnesota who are exceeding expectations so far this season.
See you next time
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