Latinos seek to dethrone Alonso in homeruns
Four Dominicans and one Venezuelan make up the group of five Latino hitters who will take the field this Monday at Dodgers Stadium, where they will try to dethrone starter Pete Alonso in the Major League Baseball Home Run Festival.
Dominicans Albert Pujols (St. Louis Cardinals), Juan Soto (Washington Nationals), José Ramírez (Cleveland Cavaliers), Julio Rodríguez (Seattle Mariners) and Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta Braves) will show the power of their bats in the competition in Los Angeles.
Along with these five Latinos and Alonso (New York Mets), Kyle Schwarber (Philadelphia Phillies) and Corey Seager (Texas Rangers) will also be on the scene.
Alonso has won the last two editions of the home run contest (2019-2021) and is the man to beat in this new opportunity in which he will seek to become the first player to conquer the Home Run Festival three times in a row and equal Ken Griffey Jr. (1994, 1998 and 1999), as the only ones to win this tournament three times.
Pujols, the dean of this group of players, will join Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, Prince Fielder, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and David Ortiz as the only players to have participated in five Home Run Festivals.
The Cardinals veteran is the only one of these players who has not won this competition, something he will try to do in what he has indicated as his last season in the Major Leagues.
In his experience in this type of competition, Acuña Jr. was eliminated precisely by Alonso in the semifinals of the 2019 tournament, when the starter won his first title.
Soto participated in the last edition and although he did not win, he starred in the most memorable battle of the tournament held in Colorado with Japan’s Shohei Ohtani, whom he defeated after two tiebreaker rounds.
The Nationals star left his mark with a 520-foot pitch, the longest measured in the Statcast era in a competition of this type.
As for Ramirez and Rodriguez, this will be the first opportunity for both to participate in this event.
Schwarber made it all the way to the finals in 2018, where he lost to now-teammate Bryce Harper.
Seager also has experience, as he was present in the 2016 edition.
Cuban Yoenis Céspedes, champion in 2013 and 2014, was the last Latin hitter to conquer this event.
First round match-ups
In the first round, Dominican Albert Pujols, who has hit six home runs in the regular season, will face Kyle Schwarber, who came into Sunday as the National League leader in home runs with 29.
Venezuela’s Ronald Acuna, who has sent eight balls over the wall, will face two-time defending champion Pete Alonso, who has hit 24 home runs so far this year.
Julio Rodriguez, who has 16 home runs, will face Seager, owner of 22 home runs.
Juan Soto, who has hit 20 home runs out of the park, and Jose Ramirez, who has hit 19 balls into the stands, will feature a duel of Dominican bats in this first round of the Major League Home Run Festival.
