A’s Olson falls a home run short of advancing in Derby
Matt Olson helped get the MLB Home Run Derby off to a booming start Monday night, but the A’s first baseman ran out of time and fell one homer shy of advancing out of the first round at Coors Field.
Olson just missed hitting a tying home run on his final swing — admiring a high, towering shot as it hooked outside the right field foul pole as time expired — and the Orioles’ Trey Mancini advanced with a 24-23 victory in their first-round matchup.
Mancini, a survivor of stage 3 colon cancer who had surgery to remove a malignant tumor in March 2020, hung around until the very end, facing defending champion Pete Alonso of the Mets in the final. Alonso won to defend his title.
With favorable weather con
ditions, livelier-than-usual baseballs (for Coors Field, at least) and a ballpark sitting 5,000 feet above sea level, the Derby portion of All-Star week in Denver figured to provide plenty of fireworks. The first round delivered, capped by a dramatic late run by Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani that forced a swing-off with Juan Soto that was ultimately won by the Nationals young star.
Ohtani, the No. 1 seed who will be the starting pitcher and leadoff hitter for the American League Tuesday in the All-Star Game, initially couldn’t get anything in the air and didn’t hit his first homer until 50 seconds had gone by. Perhaps boosted by a mid-round phone call from Angels teammate Mike Trout, Ohtani found his swing and tied things up at the end of regulation and then again in the swing-off. The round went to overtime, where Soto homered on all three of his swings and won when Ohtani’s first swing didn’t clear the fence. Ohtani finished with 28 home runs, including six that went 500 feet.
Olson was the No. 3 seed in the Derby and Mancini was the No. 6 seed.
The pair combined to hit nearly 50 home runs in just under 10 minutes, a signal of what was to come.
The Rangers’ Joey Gallo, the No. 2 seed, also ran out of time and the Rockies’ Trevor Story held on for a 20-19 victory. Alonso, the No. 4 seed, hit a first-round record 35 in his opening-round win over
the Royals’ Salvador Perez, who hit 27.
Mancini reached the finals by edging Story 13-12. Alonso advanced by edging Soto 1615.
A’s assistant hitting coach Eric Martins threw to Olson, who headed to Coors Field on a power surge. Olson is fourth in the American League with 23 home runs and hit two in the A’s final game before the break, ending a 14-game homeless streak.
The format for the Derby has changed over the years. Initially paced by “innings”, from 1991-2013 players could keep swinging until they made 10 outs -- balls that didn’t clear the fence. Since 2015 it’s been a bracket format and with time limits. Players get three minutes in the first and second rounds, and two
minutes in the final round. A home run of at least 475 feet extends the hitter’s time by 30 seconds.
Mancini struggled initially in the opening round, hitting two homers in about 60 seconds before taking a timeout. Then he blasted 17 more in the next two minutes and another five in his extra minute.
Olson, who, along with all the other competitors wore No. 44 in honor of the late Hank Aaron, followed Mancini’s impressive round with a barrage of high, arching blasts, including one that sent a fan tumbling over a railing trying to catch.
(The fan was OK and later did an interview to describe the experience). Two of Olson’s homers were measured at 495 feet.
Olson reached the third deck at Coors three times, but also curled several balls foul and hit another off the outfield wall. He needed two more homers to tie Mancini with 15 seconds remaining and got the first, but missed the potential tying shot by only a few feet.
One of Olson’s homers slammed off a “Hit it Here” advertising sign in center field, winning World Series tickets for two fans.
The competition figured to be a wild one. The influence of the thin air and altitude at Coors Field on hitting is well-documented, but others factors figured to promote more and longer home runs. It was nearly 90 degrees when Olson and the Orioles’ Mancini took the first swings of the event around 6:15 p.m. local time, and the balls they used had not been deadened by sitting in a humidor like the ones used at Coors Field for regular-season games as well as Tuesday night’s AllStar Game.
Olson will make his first AllStar Game appearance today. This was his first Derby appearance, and more figure to be in his future. The 27-yearold Olson has hit 123 home runs in 505 games since he made his debut in 2016. Only Mark McGwire (128) hit more in his first 500 games in franchise history.
Olson is the ninth different A’s player to participate in the Derby, joining Jose Canseco (1986, 1990); 1992 winner Mark McGwire (also 1987, 1990, 1996-97); Ruben Sierra (1994); John Jaha (1999); Jason Giambi (2001), two-time winner Yoenis Céspedes (201314); Josh Donaldson (2014) and Matt Chapman, who represented the A’s in 2019.