Jordan Walker wasn’t supposed to win that Home Run Derby.

Kyle Schwarber had just finished his hitting in the finals, Citizens Bank Park was shaking, and it felt like Philadelphia was about to get exactly what they wanted. Then Jordan Walker stepped in and started swinging.

He kept hitting home runs. Then he kept hitting more.

Walker homered on his final six swings, including four after he’d already reached what was supposed to be his last one. One barely stayed alive, bouncing off the top of the center-field wall. The next cleared it. Then another. By the time the last ball landed in left-center, he had stunned the crowd and won the whole thing, 12-11.

It made for an incredible finish. It also said a lot about what this Derby turned into. Philadelphia brought an energy that made everything feel bigger, louder, and more personal than usual. At the same time, it sometimes felt like the rest of the field was just waiting for Schwarber or Bryce Harper to take center stage again.

Philly Made The Derby Feel Important

Nobody was shocked that Philly showed up for their guys. That’s kind of the whole deal there.

The Derby hadn’t been in the city for 30 years, and this was the first time at Citizens Bank Park. The last one in Philly was back at the Vet in 1996, when Barry Bonds ran down Mark McGwire with three straight bombs at the end. This time, you had two Phillies in the field, a packed house, and a real shot at a hometown winner. Of course it was going to get loud.

Harper leaned all the way into it, because of course he did. He walked through a giant Liberty Bell, stepped into a home-plate-shaped wrestling ring and climbed the ropes like he was cutting a promo. He’d already won one of these in D.C. when he was on the Nationals in 2018 — beating Schwarber, by the way — and basically said he was only doing this one because it was in Philly.

The crowd matched that energy immediately. Harper got the full superstar treatment. Schwarber was getting huge cheers during batting practice an hour before things even started. Everyone else? Yeah, they got booed. That part felt pretty predictable.

Early on, it was actually kind of perfect. Willson Contreras came out and mashed 13 homers, including a 490-foot missile and a handful that went at least 470. The boos faded pretty quickly once people realized, “Oh, this guy is putting on a show.” By the middle of his round, the crowd was reacting to the distance like everyone else. Caminero followed with 12. Caglianone was launching balls into the upper deck and over the batter’s eye. Philly had their favorites, but it still felt like a Derby.

Then the Phillies stepped in.

Schwarber missed on his first five swings, which honestly just made the place louder, and then he settled in and got to 10. Harper started slow, made a push late and crushed a 482-footer, but eight wasn’t enough. Just like that, the Harper-Schwarber final everyone wanted was gone in the first round.

After that, it basically turned into the Kyle Schwarber show.

The Home Crowd Eventually Made The Show Smaller

There’s nothing wrong with a home crowd riding for their guy. That’s the whole point of moving the Derby around instead of sticking it in some neutral, corporate-feeling spot every year.

But Schwarber’s semifinal against Contreras was where it started to tilt a little too far. Every Schwarber homer got a reaction that felt like October. Every Contreras homer, the place was silent. When he missed, the place exploded. Contreras lost 9-8, and the celebration sounded like the Phillies had just managed their way out of a bases-loaded jam in the playoffs.

It was fun. It was loud. It was also the moment where the Derby stopped feeling like a big, shared “look at how ridiculous these guys are” showcase and started feeling like a Phillies game with some very overqualified extras.

Nobody’s asking fans to pretend they care equally about all eight hitters, but the whole thing is built on appreciating just how absurd everyone out there is. Caminero hit one 491 feet. Contreras was averaging 449 in the first round. Walker was casually sending balls 420-plus like it was nothing. Those are the kinds of swings that should make you stop for a second, even if it’s coming from the guy you don’t want to win.

Instead, once Schwarber became the last Philly standing, anything good from the other side felt like it was getting in the way.

The Netflix broadcast didn’t exactly smooth that out either. There was already a lot going on — on-field sets, celebrity cameos, random segments, camera angles that didn’t always make sense, graphics that came and went. When Schwarber hit, everything seemed to breathe with the crowd. When someone else crushed one, it sometimes felt like the broadcast was already looking ahead to the next Schwarber swing.

And to be fair, that’s not on the crowd. Those 43,863 people didn’t show up to create a perfectly balanced national broadcast. They showed up to see Harper or Schwarber win, and they made sure both guys knew it.

Schwarber definitely felt it. He admitted afterward that the noise got to him early and he had to calm himself down. Once he did, he gave the crowd exactly what they wanted — 30 homers across three rounds, 104 for his Derby career, and he came within one swing of pulling off a home-field win.

The issue was that as Schwarber kept getting bigger, everything else around him started to shrink a little.

Walker Forced Everyone To Watch Him

Walker had been one of the best hitters in the field all night, even if it didn’t really register until the very end when he threw his arms up after the last swing.

He tied Contreras for the first-round lead with 13 homers, then needed just seven swings to hit six and knock out Caminero in the semifinal. By the time he got to the final, he already had 19 home runs and some of the loudest contact of the night. Fourteen of those first 19 went at least 420 feet.

That actually lines up with Walker’s bigger story. He came up in 2023 as a consensus top-five prospect and looked like the next guy in St. Louis after hitting 16 homers with a .787 OPS as a rookie. Then it stalled out. Over the next two seasons, he put up a .595 OPS with only 11 home runs and started 2026 with people wondering if it was ever going to click.

This year, it finally has. Walker hit the break at .294 with 22 homers and 74 RBI, made his first All-Star team, and started looking like the version of himself everyone expected. The Derby didn’t create that. It just made sure everyone else noticed.

Schwarber didn’t exactly make it easy. He came out in the final and hit six homers on his first eight swings, finishing with 11 — his best round of the night. Walker had six through 12 swings. With three left, you could feel the crowd getting ready to celebrate.

Then Walker went back-to-back to get to eight. Under the new format, the last ball is a "Magenta Ball," and if you hit a home run, you keep hitting until you don't. Walker needed three in a row just to tie Schwarber and four to win it.

He got all four.

The first one barely cleared, hitting high off the wall and dropping into the bushes in center. Schwarber said later that’s when he started thinking, “Uh oh.” Walker followed it with three more as the boos got louder, finishing off a six-homer run that gave the new format exactly the kind of ending the MLB was hoping for.

Walker became the first Cardinal to ever win the Derby and, at 24 years and 52 days old, the fifth-youngest winner ever. More than anything, he made it impossible for the crowd — and the broadcast — to keep treating him like background noise.

Afterward, when he was asked what it felt like to have the entire stadium booing him, Walker had the perfect answer.

I was once told, you don’t boo nobodies. So it feels pretty good.

Reggie Jackson must've been grinning ear to ear at that one.

Philly Made It Better And Worse

So, did Philadelphia make the Derby better?

Honestly? Yeah, I think so. A neutral crowd doesn’t give you that ending. The crowd gave a glorified batting practice some real stakes, and Walker gave it the kind of finish you couldn’t script.

But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get a little tiring before it got great.

There’s a balance somewhere between being a great home crowd and acting like every non-Phillie homer is a personal shot. Boo the intros, go nuts for Harper and Schwarber, try to will a ball back into the park — that’s all part of it. But you can still appreciate a 490-foot bomb without feeling like you’re betraying the city.

And I can’t be the only one who caught myself rooting against Schwarber in the semifinals, just a little bit, so we could get a final where the crowd could actually cheer for both guys instead of turning one of them into the villain.

Because at the end of the day, this is still supposed to be a national event, even if the host city gets to put their stamp on it. Philly kind of flipped that Monday night. It turned into a Schwarber show and basically dared anyone else to ruin it.

Walker did.

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