In the long and storied history of the St. Louis Cardinals, none of their players have won a Home Run Derby until Monday night. Jordan Walker came through with home runs on his final six swings to best hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber with 12 home runs in the final round to Schwarber’s 11. It was Schwarber’s third attempt at winning a Home Run Derby and he has come up short every time.
After the event, Schwarber admitted that he may have gotten too pumped up by the home crowd. “From pitch one where I felt like I was just going too hard, trying way too hard because I wanted to go get it and I wanted to do it for them. I was talking to myself, I just have to slow it down here because it’s rowdy and you feed off that,” said Schwarber.
For his part, Walker knew the fans would be decidedly against him in the final round because he was facing Schwarber. “My thought was Philly is brutal. I mean, honestly. But I think it’s pretty special because they love their players, and that’s what you want from where you play,” said Walker of the partisan crowd.
The other Phillies in the contest, Bryce Harper, was eliminated in the first round when he hit just eight home runs on 20 swings. Munetaka Murekami (9), Jac Caglianone (8), and Ben Rice (7) also went out in the first round.
Schwarber defeated Wilson Contreras in the semifinals and Walker defeated Junior Caminero in his semifinal matchup. Caminero had the longest home run of the night at 491 feet while Contreras fell a foot short of that blast with a 490 foot home run. The two longest home runs both came in the first round.
“I knew I was in a good position, but I know anything can happen, too,” Schwarber said. “And Jordan was unbelievable there, so you can’t say enough about how he was able to kind of slow the moment down and lock it in.”
Schwarber will be the starting designated hitter, batting leadoff for the National League team in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game. Teammate Brandon Marsh will start in right field and bat sixth and pitcher Cristopher Sanchez will be the starting pitcher for the NL.
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