⚾ Home Run Derby

How to play Home Run Derby

How to play

Home Run Derby is a pure timing challenge. Each round the pitcher winds up and delivers 10 pitches toward home plate, and a banner announces whether a fastball, curveball or changeup is on its way. Watch the ball travel and swing your bat just as it crosses the plate. Perfect contact launches the ball deep for huge distance, while early or late swings dribble it weakly or miss entirely. Swinging and missing counts as a miss, and so does letting a hittable pitch sail past the plate untouched. After 10 pitches the round ends and your total distance decides your score.

Controls

Press the Space bar or tap/click anywhere on the field to swing the bat. Press Enter or Space to start the game from the overlay. Only one swing per pitch counts, so make it a good one.

Tips

Fastballs reach the plate quickest, so start your swing a beat earlier than your eyes tell you; changeups crawl in, so hold your nerve and wait. Curveballs dip as they arrive, but the timing window sits at the plate exactly like every other pitch. Don't swing at everything out of excitement — a taken pitch is only one miss, but a panicked early swing wastes a pitch you could have crushed. Aim for the PERFECT flash of contact: those are the swings that clear 400 feet.

Scoring

Every hit scores its distance in feet as points — a 320-foot drive is 320 points. Perfect-timing contact adds a 50-point bonus, and every home run (400 feet or more) adds another 250-point bonus on top. Your longest blast and total home runs are shown at the end of the round, and your best round score is saved in your browser.