Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker take first-round lead at Home Run Derby

PHILADELPHIA — The Boston Red Sox’s Willson Contreras and St. Louis Cardinals’ Jordan Walker each clubbed 13 homers to top the leaderboard in Round 1 of the 2026 Home Run Derby on Monday night.

Tampa Bay Rays star Junior Caminero added 12 homers, and hometown Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber added 10 to sneak into the four-hitter semifinals.

Fellow Phillie Bryce Harper, who won the 2018 derby as a hometown contestant in Washington, failed to join his teammate Schwarber in the last four as he batted last and finished with eight homers.

Those came in a new first-round format, in which every hitter had 20 swings. If they homered on their last swing, they could keep swinging until they failed to send a ball over the fence, though no hitters achieved any bonus home runs in that fashion in the first round.

The semifinals to follow will feature two one-on-one matchups with 15 swings each (with the same rule on the final swing), with the winners advancing to another 15-swing showdown.

Chicago White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami (nine), the Kansas City Royals’ Jac Caglianone (eight) and the New York Yankees’ Ben Rice (seven) were the remaining hitters eliminated.

Contreras had the longest shot of the round at 490 feet to the back of the Arcade, the second deck in left field at Citizens’ Bank Park. Caminero nearly matched him with a 487-foot blast.

And while Caglianone did not move on, he became the first hitter to touch the third deck in right since Phillies legend Ryan Howard did it on a 2009 grand slam.

In the city of Rocky Balboa, Joe Frazier and Bernard Hopkins, Philadelphia leaned into its combative spirit from the start.

Famous boxing master of ceremonies Michael Buffer introduced the eight contestants, who strode into a makeshift ring at second base, as the crowd booed everyone but their hometown heroes.

Harper, the last through the ropes, leaped onto the turnbuckle and raised his hands in exultation to the Philadelphia crowd.

–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media