MINNEAPOLIS — Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has been selected to participate in this year's All-Star Game Home Run Derby on Monday at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
Machado hit his 19th homer of the season – he is tied for the team lead with Chris Davis - in the Orioles' 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday afternoon at Target Field. Machado was named to his second All-Star Game on Monday. This will be his first Home Run Derby.
This will be the third straight year that an Orioles player will participate in the Home Run Derby. Center fielder Adam Jones participated last year at Target Field and Davis was in the 2013 derby at Citi Field in New York. Both Jones and Davis advanced out of the first round, but went no further.
Two Orioles players have won the Home Run Derby. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. hit 12 homers in the 1991 contest at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) in Toronto to claim the derby crown. Miguel Tejada won the derby in 2004, hitting a total of 27 homers in three rounds at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
This year's derby will feature a head-to-head bracket format. Each of the participating eight players were seeded based on their home run totals before Wednesday's games. Machado was seeded fifth and bracketed to face Dodgers outfielder and No. 4 seed Joc Pederson in the first round, a matchup that features two of the game's top power-hitting leadoff hitters.
If Machado advances past Pederson, he would face either the Angels' Albert Pujols or the Cubs' Kris Bryant in the semifinals.
The contest will also feature timed rounds for the first time. Each batter will receive five minutes to hit, with the clock stopping only in the final minute. Participants will also receive bonus time based on the length of their home runs.
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