ARLINGTON — Michael Jordan had his secret stuff. All Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm needed was some “wooder.”
With 1:41 remaining in the semifinal of Monday night’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby, Bohm called for a timeout after depositing just three homers into the Globe Life Field stands. He needed 11 taters to match Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
Of the franchise-record eight Phillies to be named to the Midsummer Classic, first baseman Bryce Harper, shortstop Trea Turner, left-handers Cristopher Sánchez and Matt Strahm and right-hander Jeff Hoffman greeted their teammate for a pep talk … and a jug of water labeled in a Philadelphia accent.
“It’ll be fun to look over and see all the guys supporting me and doing whatever,” Bohm said earlier in the day. “Their kids having fun and all that stuff. So yeah, it’ll be a good time.”
The underdog Bohm went on a roll, going deep in eight of his next 13 hits, and reached 14 on his second-to-last swing to force a swing-off. Hernández homered on two of three pitches, while Bohm could only counter with one and was eliminated. Hernández went on to capture the crown, besting Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. in dramatic fashion.
“I really don’t feel any pressure, maybe I will once we get closer to it,” Bohm said beforehand. “I don’t feel much pressure. For me, it’s just kind of going out and hitting. I think it’s going to be fun more than anything, right? But maybe I’ll feel a little bit of pressure when I get up there.”
If Bohm felt any nerves, he didn’t show it. Leading off the Derby because he had the fewest first-half homers (11) among the eight participants, Bohm quickly turned himself into a legitimate contender with 21 taters — tied for most in the first round with Guardians third baseman José Ramírez. Bohm went deep on three consecutive swings three times in the round, including a stretch of six in a row.
With new Derby rules, there was no seeding for the first round. Instead, all eight participants were asked to hit as many homers as possible in their allotted time (three minutes), with a maximum of 40 pitches thrown. Sluggers then got a bonus period that went until three outs, with every hit either a home run or an out. A homer of at least 425 feet in the bonus period unlocked a fourth out. The top four sluggers advanced to the semifinals, where the seeding was determined by the number of homers hit in Round 1.
To get that far, Bohm knew he needed to execute a pull-happy, line-drive approach — quite the opposite of his reputation for going to the opposite field. All 36 of his homers went to left field on Monday. He likely perfected that with Manhattan College assistant coach Scott Wingo, who was Bohm’s coach in 2016 during his freshman year at Wichita State. The pair previous teamed up that summer when Bohm won the Coastal Plain League home run derby. The duo settled for third place this time around.
Here is a breakdown of Bohm’s homers:
Top distance: 445 feet
Average distance: 405 feet
Homers of 425+ feet: Seven
Top exit velocity: 105 mph
Average exit velocity: 94.7 mph
“As far as strategy, I think just going to swing at everything, and I’ll try to hit them right over the left-field fence,” said Bohm, who homered to right-center field at the Rangers’ ballpark on Opening Day 2023. “Not try to play around with the middle of the field too much. Try to use the short part, see how many I can get.”
It was an impressive showing from Bohm, whose single-season career-high is 20 homers in 2023. He’s hit 55 over parts of five seasons. On the MLB-best Phillies, he is tied with Turner with the fourth-most long balls. Leading the pack was arguably his biggest cheerleader in Harper, who won the 2018 Home Run Derby.
“I hope he enjoys it, I think that’s the biggest thing, just trying to enjoy it,” Harper said earlier in the day. “Go out there. I hope he surprises some people. I think he doesn’t probably have the best odds I’d imagined, just because there’s a lot of guys in there that have a lot of homers and stuff, but I’m looking forward to seeing him do it tonight.”