Cruz hits 513-foot homer, joins Raleigh, Caminero and Buxton in Home Run Derby semifinals

ATLANTA AP Pittsburgh s Oneil Cruz hit a -foot drive over Truist Park s right-center field seats while advancing to the second round of the All-Star Home Run Derby along with Seattle s Cal Raleigh Tampa Bay s Junior Caminero and Minnesota s Byron Buxton on Monday night Atlanta s Matt Olson Washington s James Wood the New York Yankees Jazz Chisholm Jr and the Athletics Brent Rooker were eliminated Cruz and Caminero each hit long balls and Buxton had in the opening round of the annual power show Raleigh and Rooker had apiece but Raleigh advanced on the tiebreaker of their longest homer feet to Cruz faced Raleigh in the semifinals while Caminero took on Buxton The longest derby homer since Statcast started tracking in was feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver s Coors Field in Last year the longest drive at Arlington Texas was feet by Atlanta s Marcell Ozuna Cruz s long drive was the hardest-hit at mph Raleigh who leads the major leagues with homers was pitched to by his father Todd former coach of Tennessee and Western Carolina His younger brother Todd Raleigh Jr did the catching Just the second Derby switch-hitter after Baltimore s Adley Rutschman in Raleigh hit eight left-handed took a timeout then hit seven right-handed Going back to lefty then hit two more in the bonus round Wood hit homers including a -foot shot and one that landed on the roof of the Chop House behind the right-field wall Olson disappointing his hometown fans finished with and was eliminated in the first round for the second time Chisholm hit just three homers AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb Source