Mancini finishes 2nd in ‘really special’ Derby

DENVER — If anybody was going to get cheers from the crowd at Coors Field after he eliminated hometown kid Trevor Story from the 2021 T-Mobile Home Run Derby, it was going to be Trey Mancini.

Exactly 16 months to the day after the Orioles slugger underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his colon, and less than a year after wrapping up months of chemotherapy, Mancini put on a show in his first Home Run Derby, knocking out the A’s Matt Olson in the first round and the Rockies’ Story in the second round before his night came to an end with a 23-22 finals loss to back-to-back Derby champion Pete Alonso of the Mets.

Mancini said before the event that he hoped to continue representing those battling cancer more prominently through his platform. On the biggest stage he’s seen since his own fight with Stage 3 colon cancer, Mancini’s power-packed performance ensured that his story stood more prominently than ever.

“It’s really special, to kind of be on the national stage and tell my story and go through what I did and to kind of have this really happy day and cool experience after a lot of tough days in the last year-plus,” Mancini said before the event. “It’s really special and something I’m trying to soak up.”

Mancini put up a huge fight in the final round, hitting 22 blasts off Notre Dame pitching coach Chuck Ristano in the fulfillment of a nearly decade-old promise to his old mentor. Still, Alonso’s consistent power appeared effortless at times throughout the evening, and that carried through into a loud performance, capped by six homers in six swings in bonus time, sending the Polar Bear to a walk-off 23-22 win.

Mancini had only five homers when he took a timeout with 1 minute, 17 seconds on the clock in the finals, and just as he did in the first round, he came out of the break with a vengeance. In the seeming blink of an eye, his total had ballooned to 17 by the end of the two-minute round, and he added five more in bonus time to give Alonso a high bar.

“I’m about to be in the Home Run Derby, and I’ve got to enjoy that,” Mancini said before the event. “So I’m so thankful to be here and so thankful to my girlfriend, my family, my friends, my teammates, who have just been so amazing now.”

Mancini had only two homers in the first minute of his first-round matchup against Olson when he took his timeout with 2:07 remaining in the three-minute round. Orioles teammate Cedric Mullins brought him a drink and a pep talk as Mancini caught his breath.

Once this baseball thing is over, Mullins could have a career as a motivational speaker.

Coming out of the timeout, Mancini was a different man. His first homer out of the break was a 474-foot blast, followed by a 496-footer to straightaway center, his longest of the night. He didn’t stop adding on.

Blast after blast soared through the thin Colorado air, and at the end of those first two minutes, Mancini had 19 homers. Counting the minute of bonus time he earned for his effort, Mancini finished his first round with 24 total blasts, totaling 10,723 feet of big flies. It was just enough to edge Olson, who stood at 23 when his final blast went mere feet wide of the foul pole.

Both Mancini and Story appeared tired in the second round, when neither of them crushed the 475-foot blast necessary to earn the 30 seconds of extra time. Mancini didn’t need it, as some of his homers were wall-scrapers, but they still counted the same as he walked off Story, 13-12, with 23 seconds remaining in the initial three-minute round.