Despite a moonshot HR, Marcell Ozuna was eliminated early from the Home Run Derby.

Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves, DH, blasted the longest home run of the competition, but it wasn’t enough to progress.
Marcell Ozuna, an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves, saw his Home Run Derby night end early after only hitting 16 home runs in the opening round. He was shy of the required 20 home runs (19 plus a tiebreaker) to advance to the semifinal.

Ozuna appears to be returning to Atlanta on foot. To get a ride home, Reynaldo Lopez jokingly claimed he needed to score 40 in the last round.

It took Ozuna some time to get rolling, despite having the second-most home runs in the National League (26). As a result of the revised rules for this year’s derby, he only had four home runs after 18 of the 40 pitches that were permitted.

When he returned to the batter’s box, he showed some improvement, hitting 10 home runs on the next 21 pitches he saw before running out of time. He had called time in the hopes of regrouping.

Like a trainer in a boxing fight in between rounds, Ozuna’s Braves teammates rallied around him. Even after getting the extra out, he managed just two home runs in the bonus round.

That meant he had to sit through the rest of the Home Run Derby.

When he did score runs, he did so with moonshots, one of which was the farthest in the history of the Home Run Derby at 473 feet.
If that cheers Ozuna up, he wasn’t the only one who gave a lackluster performance. Pete Alonso, the two-time Derby winner, only managed to smash 12 home runs, while Gunnar Henderson, who had 28 this season, ended up with 11.

Teoscar Hernandez narrowly defeated Bobby Witt Jr. 14–13 in the Home Run Derby championship.
Ozuna’s night is finished, but he’ll return for the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday. EST time for the first pitch is 8 p.m.