The 2014 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby (known through sponsorship as the Gillette Home Run Derby) was a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

hitting contest in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) between five batters each from the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

and

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. The derby was held on July 14, 2014, at the site of the

2014 MLB All-Star Game The 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 85th edition of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, held at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the home of the Minnesota Twins. This was the third All-Star Game played in the Twin Ci ...

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hos ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota. Yoenis Céspedes was the winner, repeating his winning performance in 2013 to join Ken Griffey Jr. and Pete Alonso as the only players to win consecutive Home Run Derbies. In June, MLB named José Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays and Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies the Home Run Derby captains. On July 8, 2014, the captains each made their first three picks, while saving their final pick for July 10. Tulowitzki selected Todd Frazier of the Cincinnati Reds, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins, and would later select his teammate Justin Morneau who played in Minnesota for ten seasons. Bautista selected 2013 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, defending home run derby champion Céspedes of the Oakland Athletics, Brian Dozier of the Minnesota Twins, and Adam Jones (baseball), Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles, and added Oakland's Josh Donaldson as his fifth AL selection.

Rule changes

As announced by Major League Baseball, there were changes to the format of the Home Run Derby in 2014. Five players participated from each league, making ten total participants rather than eight in the past. The batting order for the first round was determined prior to the event, with hitter #1 for the National League hitting first, followed by hitter #1 for the American League, and so on until each participant has batted. Each participant received seven outs, rather than 10 in previous years. The player who hit the most home runs from each league in the first round received a bye to the semifinals. The participants with the second and third most home runs from each league will face each other to determine the second semifinalist. The NL semifinal occurred first followed by the AL semifinal. The semifinal winners from each league competed in the finals to determine the Home Run Derby champion. The batting order for the finals was determined by a coin flip. The flex ball, replacing the golden ball from past years, came into play after 6 outs. A home run hit off of a flex ball resulted in a $10,000 donation to charity by Gillette and MLB. Ties in any round were broken by a 3-swing swing-off, and if still needed, sudden-death swings until one player homers and the other does not.

Results

Notes: *Numbers in parentheses denote tiebreaker swingoff *Numbers in bold denote round leader *The captains of the AL and NL teams appear in italics

References

{{Home Run Derby champions Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, 2014 2014 Major League Baseball season, Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, 2014