Jordan Walker Doesn't Give A Damn About Storybook Endings, Takes An Incredible Home Run Derby Straight Out Of Kyle Schwarber's Hands With His Final Swing
Emilee Chinn. Getty Images.Maybe it's recency bias. Maybe it's the fact that the All-Star Game is in Philly and I'm just fired up on some hometown cooking right now. But the only possible way that ending could have been any better is if the roles were reversed. Either way, that was exactly the way that god intended for the home run derby to be.
Kyle Schwarber getting up there and blasting dinger after dinger into the home crowd at Citizens Bank Park. The man has hit 32 of those things before the All Star Break, and the fans at CBP are always primed to keep their head on a swivel any time he's at the plate. He squeaks into the semifinals in the 4 spot, unloads the clip against Wilson Contreras, and looked like he was going to be unstoppable in the final.
11 homers in the final. All that was left now was for young Jordan Walker to just step on up and take a nice little dive. Give the home crowd something to really go nuts about. Kyle Schwarber is a legend in Philadelphia already, but this would just cement his place among the all-time greats. Jordan Walker was at 8 home runs and down to his last swing. And then…
Jesus christ. 4 straight to come from behind and walk it off.
Credit to Jordan Walker. This man just played the villain role to a tee. You honestly couldn't ask for a better villain. Cold, calculated, hard to root against. He took on an entire ballpark by himself, and he won.
On the bright side, the Phillies have never won a World Series when one of their guys won the Home Run Derby. They didn't do it in '05 with Bobby Abreu, and they didn't do it in '06 with Ryan Howard. So maybe the Home Run Derby wasn't the ultimate hardware the Phillies were chasing after this year. And maybe losing the Home Run Derby will keep a little spark in Schwarber's swing for the 2nd half of the season. It would have sucked to see him hit 32 heading into the All-Star Break, win the Derby, and then go on a 2nd half slump. Now we might even get another 32 Schwarbombs to bring us into October.
