ATLANTA — Brent Rooker was preparing for a swing-off.

The Athletics’ slugger had hit second in the first round of the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on Monday night, so he had to sit and watch six hitters after him hit as many home runs as they could, trying to push Rooker’s 17 home runs off the board with the top four home run totals advancing into the semifinals.

Rooker’s wait included debriefing with his teammates, peers and family — and even feeding a bottle to his youngest daughter, Blake, who had been in her mom’s arms all night.

“I took over and was on Dad duty there for a little bit while watching the first round,” Rooker said.

But when Mariners switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh — MLB’s home run leader at the All-Star break with 38 — also hit 17 home runs, and Rooker noticed that they had both hit what the scoreboard dictated as 471 feet for their longest home run, Rooker thought he might need to get loose for more swings. The tiebreaker for the first round comes down to who hits the longest homer, and Rooker was under the impression that they were tied.

When Rooker emerged from the tunnel at Truist Park, Raleigh broke the news to Rooker.

He was moving onto the Derby semifinals. Rooker was eliminated. On a night when Rooker amassed 7,280 feet total across 17 home runs, his Derby finish came down to .08 feet.

“My goodness gracious, that’s close,” Raleigh said after being crowned the Derby champion later in the evening. “I mean, like, it’s just crazy. An inch off, and I’m not even in the final four, which is amazing. So I guess I got lucky there. One extra biscuit.”

Derby rules this year dictated that tiebreakers in the first round would only come down to distances rather than swing-offs. So when Raleigh’s longest home run clocked in at an official distance of 470.62 feet, and Rooker’s was 470.54, that put Raleigh into the next round.

“Yeah, that’s interesting,” Rooker said. “Last I knew, we were both at 471, because that’s obviously the number they put up there. Maybe if they go to the decimal point, they should display that during the Derby and not wait until everyone’s done to bring out that information. That might be helpful.”

“… It is what it is. Obviously had a great time out there. Cal’s a great competitor. He put on a good performance, too. Rules are the rules in terms of what makes up the semifinals.”

Rooker watched Raleigh advance — and eventually be crowned the Derby winner — along with the Rays’ Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Byron Buxton and the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz. Rooker certainly wished he was among that group, whether it was by hitting one more homer or getting just an inch more distance on one of the home runs he hit Monday night.

But he said he wasn’t frustrated with the way his first Derby ended.

“No, no, no, no. Not at all,” Rooker said. “It was super fun, like I said, a great experience that I’m glad I got.”

Rooker was looking to become the third Derby winner in A’s history following Mark McGwire (1992) and two-time champ Yoenis Céspedes (2013-14).

And he got off to as strong of a start as he could have. Leaning heavy on the pull side at Truist Park and wielding a green-and-yellow bat in honor of the team that believed in him and made him a core piece of its present and future, Rooker’s first three swings resulted in home runs, and he had eight homers — on nine swings — in 45 seconds.

“I think I started too well,” Rooker said. “Wore myself out. I don’t know. Those first 10 swings or so we were really good, and then obviously kind of slowed down a bit.”

Rooker did slow down near the end of the first round, but he hit three home runs in the bonus round, notching an extra out with his first homer at 446 feet. Rooker averaged 428 feet across his 17 long balls. He hit six homers of at least 440 feet.

There was a bit of confusion at the end of Rooker’s round when he and his pitcher, Joe Caruso, ran out of baseballs in their crate. But Rooker had only gotten 38 swings; he took two before the time started.

“We didn’t know when they told me that there were only 40 balls in the crate, so I took two pitches that didn’t count, but when we went to do the round, there were only 38 remaining,” Rooker said. “So we got down to two pitches with like five seconds left and we were out of baseballs.”

What a blast! It was an honor to compete against those guys and fulfill a childhood dream. Congrats to Cal and everyone else who made it a great night! Still hard to believe I get opportunities to do things like this.

— Brent Rooker (@Brent_Rooker25) July 15, 2025

Despite the confusion, Rooker said he had a great time in his Derby debut. He represented the A’s and got to have his family around him on the field. He spoke highly of the atmosphere at Truist Park.

And he showed off his massive power that made him fit right in with the field of sluggers.

Who knows where he’d be if he just hit one home run one inch farther.

“I should be a little bit stronger, and I’d still be hitting,” Rooker said.