Juan Soto breaks Derby record with 520-foot home run originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Juan Soto may have entered the Home Run Derby with the fewest long balls of any participant this season, but the eighth-seeded Nationals slugger made a statement in the first round against Shohei Ohtani.
His sixth blast of the round traveled a staggering 520 feet, setting a new Home Run Derby record for the longest homer since Statcast went online in 2015. The record going into the night was 513 feet by Aaron Judge in 2017, but the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field allowed several hitters to top that mark.
First it was Trevor Story, who hit one 518 feet. Pete Alonso sent one 514. Ohtani reached 513. But no one in the first round hit one farther than Soto.
Soto finished the round with 22 home runs, a number Ohtani tied on his final swing. The two All-Stars went into a one-minute overtime round and tied once again, this time at 28. It then came down to a swing-off where each player had three swings to try and add to their total. Soto went 3-for-3 to bring his total to 31 and Ohtani’s first swing resulted in a grounder, sending Soto to the second round.
With the first-round win, Soto advanced to take on reigning Derby champion Alonso.