In an evening the place it was seemingly smart to count on the sudden, it was Teoscar Hernández from the Los Angeles Dodgers who wound up turning into MLB’s House Run Derby champion for 2024. Certainly, only one season after his good buddy Vladimir Guerrero Jr. received the Derby, Hernández joined his pal within the pantheon of Derby winners by hitting a grand complete of 49 homers on the night time.
In our primer put up for the occasion, I acknowledged that it could’ve been completely possible for the favorites to ship underwhelming performances of their respective debuts within the House Run Derby and I personally selected to select my winner from one of many three lower-ranked underdogs. Because it turned out, that ended up being spot-on — House Run Derby common Pete Alonso completed next-to-last within the first spherical with 12 homers, Gunnar Henderson (and his Scooby-Doo bat) completed in final with 11, Marcell Ozuna got here up a few dingers wanting advancing to the subsequent spherical and hometown hero Adolis García was unable to make it into the semis.
As a substitute, we ended up with Alec Bohm setting the tone with 21 house runs to begin off the occasion with a view to earn the primary seed. Jose Ramírez made up for his injury-plagued look within the 2022 House Run Derby by matching Bohm’s 21 dingers. Bobby Witt Jr. adopted up Alec Bohm by swatting 20 taters (although his brother-in-law James Russell was tossing some pitches practically eye-level to Witt) after which Teoscar Hernández mashed 19 homers with a view to slide into the semis. Should you had been rooting for the underdog then Monday night time was your night time.
Actually, the upsets continued for the remainder of the night time. As soon as the semifinals rolled round, Jose Ramírez went by means of a pair of droughts that ended up costing him to the tune of hitting simply 12 homers. In the meantime, Bobby Witt Jr. was as soon as once more in a position to take a bunch of high-and-nearly wayward pitches (for the House Run Derby no less than) and ship them flying for 15 dingers within the semis. In each the primary spherical and the semis, Witt had a comparatively gradual begin however then he known as timeout and proceeded to complete robust.
On the opposite half of the four-man bracket, Alec Bohm and Teoscar Hernández ended up going to a swing-off after each batters completed off their semifinal spherical with 14 homers. Hernandez seemingly emptied the tank in grandiose trend with a view to transfer his tally to 16 within the second spherical. Alec Bohm obtained one over the fence however stored it contained in the park together with his different two swing, which meant that it was Dodger Blue vs. Royal Blue to determine who can be this season’s Derby Champ.
Credit score must be given to each Teoscar Hernández and Bobby Witt Jr. for giving the baseball world an exhilarating ending for the Last and the perfect second of the night time that didn’t contain the Nationwide Anthem. Regardless of seemingly being gassed after his intense efforts within the semis and likewise having to go first (however solely after Michael Buffer set the tone for the ultimate showdown with what was very absolutely an costly introduction), Hernández used his deliberate tempo to hit one other 14 homers. It initially regarded like that will be sufficient for Hernández to win after Witt obtained off to a different gradual begin.
Nonetheless, Witt as soon as once more discovered his stride after the timeout and obtained into the bonus spherical of no less than bringing a couple of remaining swingoff. It positive appeared like Bobby Witt Jr. had carried out it and introduced in regards to the swingoff as soon as his remaining swing of the night time went into the air. As a substitute, the ball dramatically died on the warning monitor and the Los Angeles Dodgers had their first House Run Derby winner in franchise historical past.
Whereas this 12 months’s Derby might not have gotten off to a quick begin, issues actually obtained extra thrilling because the night time went on and we had been actually given a deal with of a remaining spherical with a view to spherical issues out. Once more, Bobby Witt Jr. deserves loads of credit score for coming in and doing his greatest to drag off the upset. Nonetheless, you may additionally simply declare that Teoscar Hernández profitable is a reasonably large upset in its personal proper. Whereas Hernández solely trails Shohei Ohtani for homers, I really feel prefer it’s fairly protected to imagine that followers normally consider Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith relating to the Dodgers and energy hitting.
Now that he’s lifted the House Run Derby trophy, Teoscar Hernández’s profile ought to no less than go up a few ticks. The identical goes for Bobby Witt Jr. as properly, who has been some of the thrilling gamers in baseball and hopefully now we’ll begin to see extra followers take note of each finalists sooner or later. Should you don’t consider me about simply how enjoyable issues obtained on the finish then simply ask the man who got here up agonizingly wanting no less than protecting the Derby going for just a few extra swings:
