AMAZIN’ ALONSO WINS HR DERBY
Alonso holds off Vlad Jr. for crown and $1M prize
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. broke a Home Run Derby record, then he broke it again. Yet it was not enough. Guerrero set a record with 91 total home runs, but Mets first baseman Pete Alonso edged Guerrero out, 23-22, in the final round to win the contest.
Alonso, 24, is the prohibitive favorite to win National League Rookie of the Year. Vlad Jr. is also a rookie, and Hall of Fame slugger Vladimir Guerrero’s son. As such, he has been around the game for a long time, showcasing his prodigious talent at an early age.
Alonso started off relatively slowly, edging out hometown All-Star Carlos Santana, 14-13. Then, he narrowly defeated Braves prodigy Ronald Acuna Jr. in the semifinals. He finished with 57 long balls, beating Guerrero in the final round with plenty of time to spare.
“This was surreal,” Alonso said. “There’s so many guys that just put on a show, like Joc (Pederson), he was amazing. Vladdy, they did such a good job. Everybody put on a show. To me, it didn’t really seem like the jitters were there, because everyone was awesome. I mean everyone was showing their stuff.”
Guerrero and Joc Pederson’s secondround battle was one for the ages, as both sluggers went blow-for-blow tying each other twice in timed rounds, then going through two more rounds of the sudden death-like “swing-offs” — where each player had three swings — before finally advancing to the final round. Guerrero smashed 40 home runs in the semifinals.
Besides hitting the most home runs of the eight contestants, Vlad also hit the hardest and farthest bombs all night, at 117 mph and 488 ft, respectively.
Alonso was the second rookie to win the Home Run Derby — the Yankees’ Aaron Judge won in 2017, during his rookie season.
Alonso, who is making the major-league minimum of $555,000 this season, walked away with a $1 million dollar prize. The rookie vowed to give 5% of his prize money to the Wounded Warrior Project and another 5% to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
“I’ve been living a fantasy,” Alonso said. “And I just want to use my platform as almost kind of just reach out to people and make people aware of these causes.”
With one of baseball’s most fearsome swings, Guerrero figured to be a force, but there was no way of predicting he’d hit 91 homers — 74 more than his dad’s entire total when he won the event 12 years ago.
Following the event, Guerrero slowly walked to his chair in the clubhouse and sat down.
“I was kind of scared he was going to beat me because he was hitting second,” Guerrero said through a translator. “It was back-and-forth and backand forth. It was really tiring.”
His hands blistered, Guerrero more than equaled his season’s salary of $468,468. He got $500,000 for finishing second, plus a $100,000 bonus for hitting the longest homer.
“I gave all I had. I’m proud I hit 91 home runs,” he said.