Trumbo the top seed in Home Run Derby

By Roch Kubatko

Orioles

July 07, 2016, 2:27pm

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Mark Trumbo is doing more than participating in Monday night's Home Run Derby at Petco Park in San Diego. He's also the No. 1 seed.

Makes sense for the major league leader to rise above the rest of the field.

Trumbo will go head-to-head against the Dodgers' Corey Seager, the eighth seed who's hit 17 home runs. The winner will compete against the Mariners' Robinson Cano (20) or the Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton (19).

On the other side of the bracket, third-seed Adam Duvall (22) of the Reds faces sixth-seed Will Myers (19) of the Padres, and second-seed and defending champion Todd Frazier (23) of the White Sox faces seventh-seed Carlos Gonzalez (18) of the Rockies.

Trumbo hit two more home runs yesterday at Dodger Stadium to raise his total to 26.

Trumbo also participated in the 2012 Home Run Derby in Kansas City and finished in third place.

Cal Ripken Jr. (1991) in Toronto and Miguel Tejada (2004) in Houston are the only Orioles to win the event since its inception in 1985. Manny Machado hit 12 last year in the opening round, but the Dodgers' Joc Pederson eliminated him by launching his 13th with more than a minute to spare.

Seager is just the seventh rookie to compete in the Home Run Derby, joining the Angels' Wally Joyner (1986), the Athletics' Jose Canseco (1986) and Mark McGwire (1987), the Dodgers' Mike Piazza (1993), and the Cubs' Kris Bryant (2015) and Anthony Rizzo (2015).