MIAMI — Kyle Stowers thought someone had to be playing a joke on him.
When the National League coaching staff approached him in the ninth inning of a tied All-Star Game and told him to be ready for a possible home run derby in extra innings, Stowers didn’t think they were serious.
The Miami Marlins’ only All-Star didn’t even know the rule calling for a home run derby instead of extra innings existed.
“I honestly didn’t even know it was a thing until the bottom of the ninth when one of the Dodgers’ coaches came up to me and said, ‘If this game ends in a tie, there’s going to be a swing-off home run derby, and you’ll be in it,’” said Stowers. “I thought they were teasing me because it’s my first All-Star Game.”
Prepared or not, Stowers stepped up to the plate late and launched a ball over the right field fence of Truist Park in Atlanta.
“Once I got in the box, that mindset took over,” Stowers said. “When I saw that one go over the fence, it felt really good, and I was definitely glad I hit one.”
Not only did Stowers’ homer help the National League prevail in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game, but it also put an exclamation point on the first half of what has been a career year so far for the Marlins’ left fielder.
Through the first half of the season, Stowers leads the Marlins in batting average (.293), runs (46), homers (19), and RBIs (54). His 89 base hits and three triples are both good for second most on the team, and the team-leading 2.5 WAR he’s posted is on pace to smash his previous best — all of it punctuated by a decisive homer in his first All-Star Game.
“That swing-off moment was really special,” Stowers said, “and wasn’t one I was anticipating.”
Miami acquired their only All-Star on the day of the trade deadline a year ago, sending left-hander Trevor Rogers to Baltimore in exchange for Stowers and second baseman Connor Norby. However, he didn’t immediately gel with the environment in Miami and batted just .186 in 50 games for the Marlins in 2024.
As he’s blossomed into the top slugger in the Marlins’ lineup a year later, Stowers credited that same environment he originally struggled to fit into for his resurgence.
“The people in the clubhouse, the front office, the training room, the coaching staff, the players —there’s just a lot of people that have believed in me and invested in me,” Stowers said Friday. “During the spring, when things weren’t going as well for me, they kept going with the way they invested in me, it was really special. I think that’s been a large part; they allowed me to kind of fail forward.”
His teammates were just as excited to see Stowers’ incredible start to the season come to a head with such a special moment for the 27-year-old.
“Kyle’s a really easy guy to root for; he’s a very good teammate,” said Marlins’ right-hander and fellow Stanford graduate Cal Quantrill. “That was awesome. I’m sure that the nerves were very real there, and he stepped up and he did it. Very happy for him, and hopefully he can carry that into the second half of the season.”
Stowers’ rise has coincided with the Marlins’ surge in the divisional standings. Led in part by the bat of Stowers, Miami had gone 19-10 since June 13 and risen to third place in the NL East before splitting for the All-Star break.
“What we’ve done really well is just respond well to whatever each day dictates, whatever happens in the game,” Stowers said. “If we treat every day with the same preparation and play clean baseball, then we’ll keep this going.”
