7/13/26
(Philadelphia, PA) It was a new format for the 2026 Home Run Derby but it made for a thrilling event in Philadelphia on Monday night. Eight of the top sluggers in baseball battled it out including the Phillies own Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper along with last year’s runner-up in Tampa Bay’s face of the franchise, Junior Caminero.
Those three along with Munetaka Murakami were the favorites but it was St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker using the event to catapult himself into stardom. The 24-year-old made it dramatic in the finals against fan favorite Kyle Schwarber as he needed to homer on five consecutive swings just to tie Schwarber and force a swing-off. He took it a step further, homering on six swings in a row with four against the dreaded “magenta ball” to earn a walk-off win to send the raucous Philadelphia crowd home pretty unhappy.
The crowd was very vocal in booing any non-Phillie, including Willson Contreras, who Schwarber beat in the semifinals. The boos seemed to rattle Walker a bit but he wore it as a badge of honor and chose the right time to get hot and etch his name in Derby history.
“You don’t boo nobodies,” Walker said after the Derby.
Walker became the first St. Louis Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby, a feat Albert Pujols never did and Mark McGwire only did as an Oakland Athletic. He is the fifth youngest player to ever win the derby at 24 years and 52 days old while the youngest remains Juan González who won it in 1993 at 23 years and 265 days old.
elisportsnetwork.com
