Hometown hero Julio Rodriguez lit up the Seattle sky with a record-setting number of dingers in the first round of the Home Run Derby.
Julio Rodriguez made history in front of the home crowd on Monday night. The Seattle Mariners star swatted 41 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby, breaking the record for most home runs in a single round. The record was previously held by Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (35).
Well, as fate would have it, Alonso is competing alongside Rodriguez in the derby this year — head to head, in fact. The two-time champ was looking to join Ken Griffey Jr. as the only three-time winner in MLB history. Unfortunately for him, the bracket placed him right up against the new record-holder.
Alonso was, um, not so thrilled about Rodriguez putting his record to shame.
Pete Alonso and the MLB fandom react to Julio Rodriguez's historic HR Derby performance
Many pundits picked Rodriguez heading into the night for obvious reasons: he has the crowd behind him and 1.5 years of intimate experience hitting (well) at T-Mobile Park. The reigning AL Rookie of the Year has 13 homers on the season, but nobody could have realistically predicted the show he put on Monday night.
Rodriguez ousted Alonso in the first round, ending his bid for a third HR Derby title (until next year at least) and setting up a highly anticipated second-round showdown with another former derby winner, Vladdy Guerrero Jr.
That, folks, is what we in the business like to call must-watch television.
Rodriguez, who is only 22 years old with another two decades of success on the horizon, will look to cement his status as one of the league's brightest young stars tonight. If he can topple Vladdy and get all the way to the HR Derby mountaintop (again, at 22 years old), the hype train will have officially left the station.
Meanwhile, Alonso will have to go back to the drawing board. We were robbed of a potential Alonso-Acuña NL East showdown, but hey — we'll take the record-setting, brain-breaking, physics-defying masterclass from the Seattle-based young buck instead. That's a fair exchange.
