A former Montreal Expo outslugged a present-day Toronto Blue Jay to win Major League Baseball's home run derby before a crowd of 43,615 at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Monday.

Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels prevailed 3-2 over Toronto's Alex Rios in the championship final, needing only 10 swings to win the decisive duel between right-handed right-fielders from the American League. 

Vladimir Guerrero takes a mighty swing in Monday's home run derby.
(Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

"The wind just blows," St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols said of AT&T Park. "It's probably the toughest park in the National League for a right-handed hitter."

Rios topped all sluggers with 17 homers in reaching the championship round, including a dozen in the second round, but parked only two balls in the final.

"At the beginning, I was a little nervous," he said. "I guess I just didn't warm up enough."

Guerrero, who hit 234 of his 352 career homers with Montreal, had 14 homers in the two qualifying rounds, including a mammoth 503-foot blast.

Pujols followed with 13 homers, one shy of forcing a tiebreaker with Guerrero, who homered just twice in his only other derby seven years ago.

"The first time I came in 2000, I swung at every pitch so, this time, I came back with a different philosophy," Guerrero said through an interpreter.

"I was going to take a pitch to rest in between. There was nothing in the ballpark that I was aiming for."

Rios walloped five homers in the first round, as did Guerrero and Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies.

Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau of New Westminster, B.C., and Pujols both finished with four homers, prompting a five-swing playoff that Pujols won 2-1.

Defending champion Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies belted just three homers in the opening round and was eliminated.

Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers and Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers also failed to advance to the second round.

"It's a tough thing to do," Howard said. "Guys are just trying to stay with their natural swing."

Bonds balks at derby

San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds chose not to compete in the derby.

Bonds, who set the single-season record of 73 homers in 2001 and needs five homers to break Henry Aaron's career mark of 755, told ESPN that the derby is simply too exhausting. 

"It's just that I'm almost 43 years old," Bonds said. "I wanted to do it in my heart; it's just that I'm not capable of doing it anymore."

"It would have been awesome to watch him hit some into McCovey Cove," said Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who tops the majors with 30 homers but also declined to take part in the derby.

Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, whose bronze statue overlooks the cove, received a big ovation during the pre-derby ceremonies, as did former Giants outfielder and manager Dusty Baker.

McCovey, who clubbed 521 homers over 22 MLB seasons — 19 with San Francisco — presented each participant with a commemorative bat.

The all-star game itself goes Tuesday (8 p.m. ET), with Dan Haren of the Oakland Athletics starting for the AL and Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres for the NL.

San Francisco last hosted the all-star game at Candlestick Park in 1984, when Gary Carter of the Expos was chosen as the most valuable player after homering off Dave Stieb of the Blue Jays in a 3-1 victory for the NL.

With files from the Canadian Press