When Teoscar Hernández wanted a second to settle down in the course of the Dwelling Run Derby, the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger received a lift from a former teammate who simply occurred to be final 12 months’s champion.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr wore a Blue Jays jersey with Hernández’s title and No 37 on the again as he watched the competitors, honoring his pal from their time as Toronto teammates from 2017-22.
“That was a shock of the evening,” Hernández stated. “He brings my jersey from Toronto. And when he goes to residence plate, he was attempting to calm [me] down, and so he had handed two occasions, and it really works. He stated he wished to assist me going into the final spherical.”
Hernández received the Dwelling Run Derby when he beat native star Bobby Witt Jr of the Kansas Metropolis Royals 14-13 within the ultimate spherical on Monday evening.
The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds and have become the primary Dodgers participant to win the derby amongst 11 who’ve tried.
“If I’ve to guess, it doesn’t matter who I’m going towards, I’m going to guess on myself,” Hernández stated when requested if he felt just like the underdog.
Witt, needing one residence run to tie with one out remaining, drove a ball to one of many deepest elements of Globe Life Discipline in left-center, the place it hit midway up the wall.
“Once I hit it I knew I type of – I didn’t hit it nice. However, yeah, I simply was attempting to blow on it or one thing,” Witt stated with a chuckle. “The very first thing I believed was simply no pop … We received to do a pair extra curls or one thing.”
Kansas Metropolis have by no means had a derby winner. Hernández received $1m together with the title and Witt earned $750,000 for ending in second place.
Each completed their two-minute ultimate spherical with 11 homers, earlier than bonus swings have been added. Witt got here up in need of his first two bonus swings, then hit two homers in a row – one a 457ft drive that received him yet another swing.
Witt had knocked out Cleveland switch-hitter José Ramírez 17-12 within the semifinals. Hernández beat Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm 16-15 after a tiebreaker when each received three swings – Hernández hit two out, and Bohm one. They have been tied at 14-14 after the three-minute phase and their bonus rounds, and Bohm got here near avoiding that, however the final ball he hit then landed on the warning observe in left-center subject.
Ramírez and Bohm each hit 21 homers to tempo the primary spherical. Witt began with 20 homers and Hernández had 19. The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso fell brief in his bid to hitch Ken Griffey Jr as a three-time derby champion when he hit solely 12 homers within the first spherical.
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Alonso hit a 428ft homer to left-centerfield on his first swing, however couldn’t get right into a rhythm. The others knocked out after the primary spherical have been hometown favourite Adolis García of Texas, Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson.
“It’s disappointing, however for me, I believe it’s actually only a blessing and it’s simply enjoyable being on the market,” stated Alonso who has 207 homers in his 5 derby appearances. “On the finish of the day, it wasn’t my day.”
Ozuna had the longest homer of the evening at 473ft. The longest homers hit throughout video games on the stadium have been 472 ft – by Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels in 2022, and Oakland’s Seth Brown in 2021.
