*Photo from Draft Kings*
You thought there was going to be a new winner of the home run derby this year, didn't you? Well, turns out you're dead wrong. Pete Alonso took that personally. Alonso, coming into the night as the defending home run derby champion, went out and did it again, defeating Trey Mancini in the finals to win his second straight derby.
Alonso said "I think I’m the best power hitter on the planet. Being able to showcase that and really put on a fun display for fans, it’s truly a dream come true for me. When I was younger, my parents actually let me stay up past my bedtime to watch this."
Alonso entered the derby field ranked as the 5th seed, which seemed a little low for the defending champion. He was joined by one seeded Shohei Ohtani, two seeded Joey Gallo, 3rd seeded Matt Olson, 4th seeded Salvador Perez, 6th seeded Mancini, 7th seeded Trevor Story, and 8th seeded Juan Soto. Despite the seedings, Alonso knew it was his derby to lose.
Alonso said "There was no point where I thought I was going to lose. Ever. When the seedings came out, teammates came up to me and said, ‘That’s disrespectful. You’re defending your title; what guy that’s defending their title is a fifth seed? Nobody. Aren’t you pissed about that?’ I said, ‘No. I’m going to win anyway. It doesn’t matter.'"
The first round of the derby featured Ohtani vs Soto, Gallo vs Story, Olson vs Mancini, and Alonso vs Perez. The first matchup vs Olson and Mancini, with Mancini being able to survive a late comeback attempt from Olson to move on. Gallo slumped hard in the first round, being eliminated by the hometown player Story. Alonso hit 35 homers in the first round to crush Perez, and Soto very shockingly outlasted Ohtani in a triple swing-off to determine the winner.
In the second round, it was Alonso vs Soto, and Mancini vs Story. Mancini, the comeback story of the season, outhomered Story to keep his cinderella derby run going, and Soto was simply no match for Alonso, who kept moving on. That left Alonso vs Mancini in the finals, with Alonso going on a massive run as time was expiring to defeat Mancini and win the title.
Even though he lost, Mancini was happy to be at the derby after beating cancer, saying that "Everybody knows the story by now, but the last year and a half was something that you have nightmares about. To be here a year later and make it to the final was incredible. I knew that they'd changed the rules to the finals, and I wasn't quite sure what it was, because I didn't really pay too much attention to it earlier on in the day. I was just kind of focused on the early rounds and everything. We had a great time out there."
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