"The Home Run Derby, like seemingly everything in baseball these days, came down to Red Sox vs. Yankees. Sox slugger Adrian Gonzalez and Yanks counterpart Robinson Cano tried to inject some life into an otherwise bloated affair with a mano-a-mano duel in last night's final.

The two each blasted 20 homers in the first two rounds to advance to the final, where Gonzalez fell one shy of the event's record with 11 bombs.

But Cano did him one better, sending 12 homers into the farthest reaches of Chase Field to beat Gonzalez and claim the title.

"That was a lot of fun," Gonzalez said. "I had a blast with it. You're tired by the third round. Cano did an unbelievable job to get to 12 home runs, and he still had four outs left. He just swung the bat great."

Sox slugger David Ortiz showed he knows how to pick a team. His AL squad blasted 76 homers, compared to just 19 for the NL squad picked by Milwaukee's Prince Fielder. Should Sox manager Terry Francona be worried?

"You saw that?" Ortiz joked. "Tito, look out, man. I'm coming to get your job. I made the right choice. That was an unbelievable show out there by Cano and my teammate, Gonzo. There were a lot of bombs out there. What Cano did was unbelievable. It was enjoyable."

Added Gonzalez: "We had more than 70, and Cano was still on a roll."

Cano hit his home runs off his father, Jose, a former big leaguer who threw 23 innings in his career. Gonzalez hit off of Indians manager Manny Acta, who stepped up to take the job about 20 minutes before the event after Gonzalez failed to get either his brother or high school baseball coach to come out and throw."