Tonight, MLB is holding its annual Seattle side home run contest on the sidelines of the All-Star Game, which takes place tomorrow.
As a curtain raiser, we were treated to great performances from Randy Arozarena and Luis Robert Jr., who advanced to the second round.
That said, Adley Rutschman stole the show by delivering quite the performance as an ambidextrous hitter, but he ran into an in-form Robert Jr..
In the second half of the first round, we obviously watched the duel between Mookie Betts and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had offered quite a performance in 2019.
The Jays slugger, who was hitting his manager John Schneider’s offerings, seemed to run out of gas as the round ended (and bonus time ended), but still found a way to smack 26 long balls .
On the other side, Mookie Betts (who didn’t believe in his chances of winning the tournament) struggled to find his rhythm. In the end, he never really worried Vladdy, he who only hit 11 home runs without ever taking his time out.
His pitcher didn’t do him any favors, though.
Then, we were entitled to a duel of titans, while the local guy in Julio Rodriguez faced the big favorite in Pete Alonso.
The two met in the semi-finals last year, a duel won by Rodriguez.
Clearly, Rodriguez wanted to give a show for his supporters: after less than 90 seconds, he already had 14 long balls.
And he was not going to stop there: he hit no less than 41 homers in the first round, a record in the current contest format (the mark was 40, made by Vladdy in 2019).
Contest regular Pete Alonso tried hard to catch the young Mariners star, but the mark was unattainable. He had to make do with 21 long balls.
For a second straight year, therefore, Rodriguez eliminated Alonso in the contest.
So that means that Vladdy and J Rod will meet in the second round. Recall that on the other side of the table, Luis Robert Jr. and Randy Arozarena will do the same.
We had a hell of a first round: can’t wait to see what the semi-finals and the final have in store for us.
