HOUSTON, TEXAS - MAY 09: Josh Reddick #22 of the Houston Astros makes a leaping catch at the wall on deep fly ball by Hunter Pence #24 of the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning at Minute Maid Park on May 09, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD – MAY 8: Jackie Bradley Jr. #19 of the Boston Red Sox makes a leaping catch during the eleventh inning of a game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 8, 2019 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
A Look back on the ten best scoops, snags, and hoses across MLB from this past week in a segment called Weekly WebGems.
As you could probably already tell from the title, CttP has put together the ten best scoops, snags, and hoses that took place across MLB this past week (05/06/19 – 05/12/19) in a segment we like to call Weekly WebGems.
Scroll through the countdown to be amazed by some of the most magnificent defensive plays your eyes have ever witnessed.
BUT FIRST — Take a look at this week’s WebJunk
ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball is typically one of the most watched games every week, meaning that more people than usual were watching when Kyle Schwarber completed misplayed a flyball then lost its whereabouts, allowing for reigning MVP Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers to reach third base on what should have been the first out of the inning.
After being a standout catching prospect, Schwarber has never truly found his footing as an outfielder. He has improved since manager Joe Maddon first moved him out from behind the plate, but this play shows Schwarber still has some work to do.
The Kansas City Royals were down a run with the bases juiced and two outs in the 8th inning when Kelvin Gutierrez hit a slow chopper just past the right side of the mound. With the lead runner on their way home, Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve needed to field the ball efficiently to get the throw off in time to get them out and prevent the run from scoring. He did so in the most efficient way by snagging the spinning sphere with his bare hand and rifling it on the run to first, retiring Gutierrez just before he got his foot on the bag.
Not only did the slick-fielding Altuve make an impressive play, but he also hindered the Royals from squaring the game up allowing the ‘Stros to come out with the win.
Manny Machado, who the San Diego Padres committed $300 million to this past off-season, thought he was going to get away with a base hit to right-center field. And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for the heroics of New York Mets’ speedy center fielder Brandon Nimmo, who covered 74 feet in 4.4 seconds to steal the extra-base hit away and preserve the Metropolitan’s lead with a diving grab.
Speedy Mets’ leadoff hitter Jeff McNeil was attempting to advance two bases on the play, but Miami Marlins’ right fielder Brian Anderson took exception to that by firing a laser beam on the fly for third baseman Martin Prado to make the easy tag. Anderson is primarily a third baseman who also mans the outfield — after seeing this throw it’s no wonder Anderson plays the hot corner with a cannon like that.
Albert Almora Jr. tried to lay a bunt down the third base side to move the Chicago Cubs’ lead runner, but got under the ball and popped it up. Milwaukee Brewers’ pitcher Jhoulys Chacin hustles off the mound to lay out and successfully make a phenomenal backhanded catch.
To top it off, Chacin rolls onto his back and throws over to second before the unsuspecting runner could tag up to complete the unorthodox inning-ending double play. See? Pitchers are athletes too.
You think Starlin can put photographer on his resume after this pic?
Needless to say, Starlin Castro has cat-like reflexes. Making a return to his old stomping grounds, the veteran second baseman silenced the Wrigley Field crowd by stabbing at this hard hit-ball batted by Chicago Cubs pitcher Cole Hamels with a quick flash of the glove (which is even more astounding in slow motion) en route to smoothly turning the 4-6-3 double play. You can tell by Castro’s reaction afterward that even he was surprised he came up with that ball.
How about back-to-back picks? This one comes to you from north of the border as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the messiah of the Toronto Blue Jays, scoops up a worm burner that came off of the bat of Chicago White Sox slugger Jose Abreu at a scalding 106.3 MPH. After the liner spins Vladito around, he’s able to recover and get to his feet in time to retire Abreu by half of a step.
One of the most incredible parts that can be overlooked is that Guerrero Jr. came up with the ball right at the back of the infield dirt at third (practically the Marianas Trench) and made the throw flat-footed from that distance. Truly a special player.
As a career .239 hitter who has lasted 11 years in the Majors with six different teams, Gordon Beckham has developed a reputation as a vacuum in the field. His newest team, the Detroit Tigers, saw that firsthand at Target Field when Minnesota Twins infielder Jorge Polanco hit a dribbler to where the second baseman would normally be — I say normally because the Tigers’ infield was playing a pull shift on the right-handed hitter so Beckham was directly behind second base at the time the ball was hit. This makes the play even more difficult because Beckham had to charge the slow roller from distance, having to leave his feet to make a diving throw in order to get it there in time to retire the fleet-footed Polanco. The athleticism demonstrated by Beckham on this play is yet another reminder that professional athletes aren’t just like the rest of us.
As difficult as it looked to pull off this play, Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros made it appear easier to complete than it actually is. Covering considerable ground running away from first base, leaving his feet to snag the ball on a tough bounce in which he ends up in shallow left-centerfield, getting up and planting his feet just enough to fire a Puerto Rican missile to a stretched out Yuli Gurriel at the bag to retire the runner by milliseconds. It all comes together to be one of the more remarkable defensive efforts you’ll see this season.
MLB WebGems #2: Jackie Bradley Jr., Boston Red Sox
What makes this home run robbery even more special is the context. The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles were tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 11th when O’s Trey Mancini hit a moonshot (off of a tough pitch to hit, by the way) to deep center field that would clear the seats in just about every ballpark.
However, Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was able to take advantage of the scale-able wall at Camden Yards and used his foot to propel him high enough for the ball to land in his outstretched glove, roughly four feet above the top of the wall. Mancini was swindled of a walk-off bomb by the 2018 Gold Glover, with JBJ’s catch extending the game just enough for the Red Sox to score the go-ahead (and winning) run in the 12th.
MLB WebGems of the Week: Josh Reddick, Houston Astros
It was very difficult choosing between Bradley Jr.’s catch and Reddick’s to crown the latter as the prestigious WebGem of the Week. Like JBJ, Reddick’s home run robbery saved the opposing team from taking the lead late in the game, as Hunter Pence‘s almost 3-run blast would have given the Texas Rangers a 5-4 lead in the top of the 9th.
JBJ, however, had time to slow down and push off against the wall while Reddick had to high jump right off of the warning track dirt on the run to get his glove over the yellow line. Additionally, Reddick’s catch was to his glove side, which can be seen as more difficult since he didn’t have the luxury of using his right arm to stabilize himself against the wall or push off it as Bradley Jr. does. Lastly, upon making the catch Reddick has to quickly get the ball in an effort to prevent the runner on third from tagging and scoring, which doesn’t happen as Shin-Soo Choo suffered a mental lapse and forgot to tag on the play. All in all, both outfielders made incredible plays to take away a pair of long balls that would significantly alter the game.
On top of that, Reddick stole the show (and the long ball) again the following night in what was nearly an exact carbon copy of the batted ball from the night before. It also took place in the 9th inning. Josh Reddick is a bad man.
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