While watching the contest, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wore a Blue Jays jersey with Hernandez’s name and number 37 on the back, honoring his friend as his Toronto teammate from 2017–22.
“He was the surprise of the night,” Hernandez said. “He brings my jersey from Toronto. And when he gets to home plate, he was trying to calm (me), and so he passed twice, and it works. He said he wanted to help me get to the final round.”
Hernandez won the Home Run Derby when he defeated local star Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, 14-13, in the final round on Monday night.
The 31-year-old Hernandez hit 49 homers over a total of 3.98 miles over three innings and became the first Dodgers player to win the derby among 11 who tried. While not participating in the derby this year, Guerrero gave advice to Hernandez during the break.
“If I have to bet, it doesn’t matter who I’m going against, I’m going to bet on myself,” Hernandez said when asked if he felt underdogs. “People probably underestimate me.”
Witt, needing a home run to tie the game with one out remaining, delivered a ball to left-center into one of the deepest parts of Globe Life Field, where it hit the wall to the left of the 410-foot sign. Collided with half of.
“When I hit it I knew I didn’t hit it well. But, yeah, I was just trying to hit it or something,” Witt said, laughing. “The first thing I thought was there was no pop. … We needed some more curls or Something else has to be done.
Kansas City has never had a derby winner.
Before the bonus swing was added, both finished their two-minute final round with 11 homers. Witt missed his first two bonus swings, then hit two consecutive homers – a 457-foot drive that earned him another swing.
Witt was selected No. 2 by the Royals in 2019 out of Colleyville Heritage High School, about 15 miles north of Rangers Stadium. It was his first time at the derby, but he was the high school home run champion in Washington in 2018 — and is the only player to compete in both competitions.
The 24-year-old Witt completed the 3.8-mile trip with 50 homers overall.
Witt defeated Cleveland switch-hitter Jose Ramirez 17–12 in the semifinals. Hernandez defeated Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm 16–15 after a tiebreaker, when both got three swings – Hernandez got out two and Bohm got out one. They were tied at 14 after the three-minute segment and their bonus round, and Bohm came close to avoiding it, but the last ball he hit landed on the warning track in left-center field.
Ramirez and Boehm both hit 21 homers to pace the first round. Witt started with 20 homers and Hernandez started with 19 homers.
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets failed in his bid to join Ken Griffey Jr. as three-time Derby champions when he hit only 12 homers in the first round.
Instead of a single-elimination bracket like the previous year, the four hitters with the most homers in the first round advanced to the semifinal round. After this it became a bracket style competition.
Alonso hit a 428-foot homer to left-centerfield on his first swing, but could not get into rhythm. Others eliminated after the first round included hometown favorites Adolis Garcia of Texas, Marcell Ozuna of Atlanta and Gunnar Henderson of Baltimore.
“It’s disappointing, but for me, I think it’s really just a blessing and it’s fun to be out there,” said Alonso, who has 207 homers in five derby appearances. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t my day.”
Ozuna had the longest homer of the night at 473 feet. The longest homers during games at the stadium were 472 feet – by Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels in 2022, and by Seth Brown of Oakland in 2021.
Bohm, one of a franchise-record eight Phillies named All-Stars, has only 11 homers this season – the fewest among the eight Derby competitors. He said he was going to try to hit as many balls as possible to left field and he did just that – hitting all 21 of his homers in the first round that way.
It was still 100 degrees (38 Celsius) outside the ballpark when the derby started, but the stadium, which opened in 2020, had a retractable roof closed. When the Rangers hosted the 1995 All-Star Game at their old stadium across the street from A Terrace, the derby was not yet a prime-time event and was held in the sweltering heat of the afternoon.
Frank Thomas won in a different format in 1995 with 15 homers in three rounds. Albert Belle finished with a total of 16, then a Home Run Derby record, but Thomas defeated him 3–2 in the final round.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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