PHILADELPHIA — Not even the partisan Philadelphia Phillies fans could get St. Louis Cardinals breakout star Jordan Walker out of his groove when it mattered most.
Walker homered on his last six swings to extend his final round and pull off a shocking victory over hometown hero Kyle Schwarber, finishing the round with 12 homers to Schwarber’s 11 to capture the 2026 Home Run Derby on Monday night.
“I can’t even describe what it means to win it,” Walker said. “It was a lot of swings, a lot of pressure, but I think I just had fun no matter what. Like every round, I said, ‘have a good time.’
“As a kid I grew up, my favorite thing to do in baseball was hitting home runs. And the competition is dedicated to doing it.”
Walker had arguably the best performance in every stage of the event, tying the Boston Red Sox’s Willson Contreras with 13 blasts in Round 1, then besting Tampa Bay Rays slugger Junior Caminero with seven swings to spare in the semifinal.
But he needed a little extra in the final round, silencing 43,863 booing fans by taking advantage of the event’s magenta-ball rule that allowed hitters to extend their stay at the plate if they homered on their final swing, given bonus swings until a ball fell short of the fences.
“I think it’s pretty special because they love their players,” the 24-year-old said of the Philly crowd. “And that’s what you want from your home, where you play. … I can’t hate ‘em, because that’s their hometown. That’s their guys.”
He ultimately received three additional swings with the rule. On his last, he sent a majestic arcing shot that landed about 20 rows deep in the left-field seats.
“The one thing, I was just like, (trying) to stay fluid,” Walker said. “I can’t swing too hard; I’ll miss the ball. And that was it.”
It was just another exceptional moment in Walker’s first career All-Star campaign that has included 22 home runs and an MLB-best 74 RBIs. Now he’s the first-ever Derby winner from one of baseball’s most-decorated clubs.
For Schwarber, it was eerily reminiscent of his first Derby appearance eight years ago, when now-Philadelphia teammate Bryce Harper went on his own amazing late run to win the 2018 event in front of his then-hometown Washington fans.
This time, the 33-year-old Schwarber also added a bonus home run in his final round, and when it was over, raised his arms skyward to the delight of the crowd.
“I never think I have it won,” Schwarber told reporters. “I knew I was in a good position, but I know anything can happen, too. And Jordan was unbelievable there, those last swings.”
Harper competed but homered only eight times in the 20-swing first round as one of four who failed to make the cut.
Schwarber defeated Contreras by one homer with nine in his semifinal, while Walker made easy work of Caminero in the other.
In the first round, Contreras and Walker each clubbed 13 homers, while Caminero had 12 and Schwarber hit 10 to round out the top four.
Chicago White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami (nine), the Kansas City Royals’ Jac Caglianone (eight) and the New York Yankees’ Ben Rice (seven) joined Harper among those eliminated in the first round.
Schwarber needed a late surge in the first round to qualify for the latter stages, but was in his element once he got there.
With three swings to go in his semifinal against Contreras, he raised an arm to implore the crowd for more noise, then clubbed his eighth and ninth homers. Those fans then cheered every Contreras miss, eventually roaring approval when the ball dropped to the turf from his 15th swing.
“We felt the energy from Pitch 1,” Schwarber said of the home crowd. “And I can’t say enough about what they did tonight. We were out there just trying to represent them as much as we can. And we left it all out there.”
Caminero had the evening’s longest home run at 491 feet in his semifinal. And Caglianone became the first hitter to touch the third deck in right field since Phillies legend Ryan Howard did it on a 2009 grand slam.
In the city of Rocky Balboa, Joe Frazier and Bernard Hopkins, Philadelphia leaned into its combative spirit from the start.
Famous boxing master of ceremonies Michael Buffer introduced the eight contestants, who strode into a makeshift ring at second base, as the crowd booed everyone but their hometown heroes.
–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media
