Albert Pujols became the feel-good story of this year’s Home Run Derby, but his first-round victory over Kyle Schwarber appears to have come with an asterisk.
Pujols, the No. 8 seed, edged the top-seeded Schwarber with a 20-19 overtime victory to advance to the second round Monday night. But ESPN seemingly omitted one of Schwarber’s home runs in OT, prematurely handing Pujols the win.
With just 15 seconds remaining in his OT session, Schwarber began to crank home runs with very little intervals between pitches. And after smacking home run No. 17 to right field, Schwarber seemed to hit the next pitch to the same vicinity, but ESPN’s counter remained at 17, evidently missing it.
Had Schwarber’s total been counted correctly, he would have tied Pujols and forced a sudden death tiebreaker.
Per BetMGM, Schwarber was the second-most popular bet to win the Home Run Derby, making Pujols’ victory the biggest upset of the night.
Controversy over the home run count did not end there. in the finals between Juan Soto and Julio Rodriguez, the Nationals star was awarded a 14th home run despite the pitch being thrown after the clock had already expired; he would go on to defeat Rodriguez and win the derby.
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