Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Dodgers' Teoscar Hernández Wins the Home Run Derby
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 9 months ago on
July 16, 2024

National League's Teoscar Hernández, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, poses for photos with the winner's trophy after the MLB baseball All-Star Home Run Derby, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP/Julio Cortez)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

ARLINGTON — When Teoscar Hernández needed a moment to calm down during the Home Run Derby, the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger got a boost from a former teammate who just happened to be last year’s champion.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wore a Blue Jays jersey with Hernández’s name and No. 37 on the back as he watched the competition, honoring his friend from their time as Toronto teammates from 2017-22.

“That was a surprise of the night,” Hernández said. “He brings my jersey from Toronto. And when he goes to home plate, he was trying to calm (me) down, and so he had passed two times, and it works. He said he wanted to help me going into the last round.”

Hernández won the Home Run Derby when he beat local star Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals 14-13 in the final round Monday night.

The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds that totaled 3.98 miles and became the first Dodgers player to win the derby among 11 who have tried. While not participating in the derby this year, Guerrero gave Hernández advice during breaks.

“If I have to bet, it doesn’t matter who I’m going against, I’m going to bet on myself,” Hernández said when asked if he felt like the underdog. “People maybe underestimate myself.”

Witt’s Performance

Witt, needing one home run to tie with one out remaining, drove a ball to one of the deepest parts of Globe Life Field in left-center, where it hit halfway up the wall to the left of the 410-foot sign.

“When I hit it I knew I kind of — I didn’t hit it great. But, yeah, I just was trying to blow on it or something,” Witt said with a chuckle. “The first thing I thought was just no pop. … We got to do a couple more curls or something.”

Kansas City has never had a derby winner.

Both finished their two-minute final round with 11 homers, before bonus swings were added. Witt came up short of his first two bonus swings, then hit two homers in a row — one a 457-foot drive that got him one more swing.

Witt was the No. 2 overall pick by the Royals in 2019 out of Colleyville Heritage High School, about 15 miles north of the Rangers’ stadium. It was his first time in the derby, but he was the high school home run champion in Washington in 2018 — and is the only player to compete in both contests.

The 24-year-old Witt finished with 50 homers overall that traveled 3.8 miles.

Semifinals and First Round

Witt had knocked out Cleveland switch-hitter José Ramírez 17-12 in the semifinals. Hernández beat Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm 16-15 after a tiebreaker when both got three swings — Hernández hit two out, and Bohm one. They were tied at 14 after the three-minute segment and their bonus rounds, and Bohm came close to avoiding that, but the last ball he hit then landed on the warning track in left-center field.

Ramírez and Bohm both hit 21 homers to pace the first round. Witt started with 20 homers and Hernández had 19.

The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso fell short in his bid to join Ken Griffey Jr. as a three-time derby champion when he hit only 12 homers in the first round.

Instead of a single-elimination bracket like last year, the four hitters with the most homers in the first round advanced to the semifinal round. It then became a bracket-style competition.

Other Participants

Alonso hit a 428-foot homer to left-centerfield on his first swing, but couldn’t get into a rhythm. The others knocked out after the first round were hometown favorite Adolis García of Texas, Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson.

“It’s disappointing, but for me, I think it’s really just a blessing and it’s just fun being out there,” said Alonso who has 207 homers in his five derby appearances. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t my day.”

Ozuna did have the longest homer of the night at 473 feet. The longest homers hit during games at the stadium were 472 feet — by Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels in 2022, and Oakland’s Seth Brown 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 he could to left field and did — pulling all 21 of his homers that way in the first round.

Derby Conditions

It still felt like 100 degrees (38 Celsius) outside the ballpark when the derby began, but the retractable roof was closed on the stadium that opened in 2020. When the Rangers hosted the 1995 All-Star Game across the street in their old stadium without a roof, the derby wasn’t yet a prime-time event and was held in the sweltering mid-afternoon heat.

Frank Thomas won in 1995 with 15 homers over three rounds in a different format. Albert Belle finished with a total of 16, then a Home Run Derby record, but Thomas beat him 3-2 in the final round.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump, Netanyahu Will Meet Today on Tariffs and the War in Gaza

DON'T MISS

YouTuber Faces Charges for Attempting Contact With Isolated Indian Tribe

DON'T MISS

Stocks Make Wild Swings as Markets Try to Assess Damage From Trump’s Trade War

DON'T MISS

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An ‘Extraordinary’ Day Hike

DON'T MISS

Bakersfield to Host Sanders and AOC in ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Event

DON'T MISS

Jaguar and Land Rover Maker Pauses Shipments to US as It Develops Post-Tariff Plans

DON'T MISS

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

DON'T MISS

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

DON'T MISS

Visalia Traffic Stop Nets $30K in Xanax, Marijuana

DON'T MISS

Fresno Joins Global Protest Against Donald Trump and Elon Musk

UP NEXT

YouTuber Faces Charges for Attempting Contact With Isolated Indian Tribe

UP NEXT

Stocks Make Wild Swings as Markets Try to Assess Damage From Trump’s Trade War

UP NEXT

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An ‘Extraordinary’ Day Hike

UP NEXT

Bakersfield to Host Sanders and AOC in ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Event

UP NEXT

Jaguar and Land Rover Maker Pauses Shipments to US as It Develops Post-Tariff Plans

UP NEXT

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

UP NEXT

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

UP NEXT

Visalia Traffic Stop Nets $30K in Xanax, Marijuana

UP NEXT

Fresno Joins Global Protest Against Donald Trump and Elon Musk

UP NEXT

2 US Border Inspectors Charged With Taking Bribes to Wave in People Without Documents

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An ‘Extraordinary’ Day Hike

1 day ago

Bakersfield to Host Sanders and AOC in ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Event

2 days ago

Jaguar and Land Rover Maker Pauses Shipments to US as It Develops Post-Tariff Plans

2 days ago

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

2 days ago

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

2 days ago

Visalia Traffic Stop Nets $30K in Xanax, Marijuana

2 days ago

Fresno Joins Global Protest Against Donald Trump and Elon Musk

2 days ago

2 US Border Inspectors Charged With Taking Bribes to Wave in People Without Documents

2 days ago

The Latest: Trump’s Tariffs Unleash Trade War and Calls for Negotiations

2 days ago

Phone Footage Appears to Contradict Israel’s Account in Troops’ Killing of 15 Palestinian Medics

2 days ago

Trump, Netanyahu Will Meet Today on Tariffs and the War in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to vis...

2 minutes ago

2 minutes ago

Trump, Netanyahu Will Meet Today on Tariffs and the War in Gaza

3 minutes ago

YouTuber Faces Charges for Attempting Contact With Isolated Indian Tribe

18 minutes ago

Stocks Make Wild Swings as Markets Try to Assess Damage From Trump’s Trade War

1 day ago

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An ‘Extraordinary’ Day Hike

2 days ago

Bakersfield to Host Sanders and AOC in ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Event

2 days ago

Jaguar and Land Rover Maker Pauses Shipments to US as It Develops Post-Tariff Plans

2 days ago

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

2 days ago

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend