Major League Baseball, known by its acronym MLB, announced changes to its Home Run Derby format on Monday.
The major changes limit the number of pitches for batters in each round and will “reconfigure the opening round of the event,” NBC reported, citing MLB.
The media outlet reports that in the first round and the semifinals of the Home Run Derby, “each batter will receive 40 pitches or spend three minutes at the plate, whichever comes first. Those numbers will be reduced to 27 pitches and two minutes for the final round.”
In addition, batsmen will be allowed up to three extra pitches per period. They will give up a fourth out if the batter hits at least one 425-foot home run during the period. Previously, there was no restriction on the number of pitches, only on the time limit.
Home Run Derby and the first round
Another major change to the Home Run Derby is that instead of facing off in the quarterfinals, the eight contestants will face off in the first round with the top four teams moving on to the next round. Then, based on points from the first round, they will move on to the semifinals and the final round.
If there is a tie for the number of home runs, then the one who hit the longest home run will win, while in the semi-finals and finals the tie will be broken with a 60-second swing-off, and if after the swing-off the tie persists, they will do successive swing-offs of three swings until a winner is determined.
MLB reported that the Home Run Derby will remain time-sensitive at its core, “before getting into the details of the bonus rules, each of the first two rounds will last three minutes, and the final round two, which has not changed since 2023.”
The time-out rules remain the same. “Each batter is entitled to a 45-second time-out in each of the three regulation periods, but no time-outs may be called during bonus periods,” the MLB website states, adding that “finally, the tiebreaker system, once the ‘knockout’ stage has begun, will be the same.”
2024-07-02 02:49:32
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