ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Switch-hitting Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez and Philadelphia third baseman Alec Bohm both hit 21 homers in the first round of the Home Run Derby on Monday night, advancing to the semifinals with Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso’s bid to join Ken Griffey Jr. as a three-time derby champion ended 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.
Witt, who went to high school only about 15 minutes from Globe Life Park, hit 20 homers, while Hernández had 19.
Alonso hit a 428-foot homer to left-centerfield on his first swing, but couldn’t get into a groove. The others knocked out after the first round were hometown favorite Adolis García, the Texas Rangers’ right fielder who was the AL Championship Series MVP last season, Atlanta outfielder Marcell Ozuna and Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson.
Ozuna did have the longest homer of the first round at 473 feet.
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.
Ramirez hit left-handed, a change from what he has done when hitting in past home run contests, and what he had planned until a round of batting practice Monday.
“Who what have thought,” he said after the first round.
It still felt like 100 degrees (38 Celsius) outside Globe Life Park 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.
With García knocked out, there remain only three players who have won the title in their home ballpark. The last was Bryce Harper when he was still with the Washington Nationals in 2018, after Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier in 2015 and Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs in 1990.
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