“Pretty exhausting, but it's all worth it,” Joc Pederson said. “It was a lot of fun and exciting. That's why you sign up for it. It was fun to compete out there. I loved it.”
Pederson, who finished second in the 2015 Home Run Derby, was the first of the eight participants to hit after being slotted as the No. 5 seed with his 20 home runs. He got off to a slow start. When he called his 45-second timeout with 2:11 remaining in his round, he had just four home runs. An early elimination appeared likely. Then he hammered 13 over the final 2:11 and smashed four more during an additional 30-second period.
There, he met Guerrero, the mesmerizing rookie and son of a Hall of Famer. Guerrero was the eighth seed because his eight home runs in 61 games were the fewest, but he was not an underdog. He had set a record with 29 home runs in the first round to beat Matt Chapman. He followed it up with another 29 in the second round to dig a deep hole for Pederson.
Raking the grooved pitches of Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel, Pederson answered with 14 home runs before using his timeout with 1:58 remaining. He proceeded to smack 15 more, crushing the 15th as his time expired to send the matchup to a 60-second swing-off with the scored tied 29-29.Guerrero recorded eight home runs, and Pederson responded again. His eighth sailed over the right-field wall as time expired. When it landed, the crowd erupted. A three-swing tiebreaker followed.
This time, Guerrero homered with his first two swings, upping the challenge. Pederson’s first swing produced a home run, but he couldn’t repeat the outcome. Guerrero rushed over to bear hug a sweaty Pederson at home plate in celebration. “It was special,” Pederson said. “That's the youngest guy to hit in the derby. He's got a beautiful swing, obviously, and it was fun.”Most Read
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