One of the most remarkable catches in some time came from San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado Tuesday against the Texas Rangers. In the bottom of the second inning, the Padres put on a defensive shift against the Rangers’ Joey Gallo, with Machado entering the outfield as a rover. And he wound up making a remarkable catch in the right field corner:
Manny Machado in deep right field…. HOW?!?!#FriarFaithful | @Padres pic.twitter.com/GhytiUAKlD
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 18, 2020
As per MLB’s David Adler, Machado covered 100 feet to get to that ball:
Statcast on Manny Machado … an infielder … going into the RF corner to make a catch
His starting depth as the "rover" was 205 feet
He still needed to cover 100 feet
Gallo's popup had a projected distance of 282 feet. Third baseman Manny Machado caught a 282-foot fly ball pic.twitter.com/wobUCX0baE
— David Adler (@_dadler) August 18, 2020
That’s a great catch from Machado, and an illustration of just how much defensive range he can bring to the table. Per Fangraphs, he had a defensive WAR component of 4.9 last year, with an Ultimate Zone Rating of 3.1. And while his bat is what he’s known for a lot of the time, this is certainly an indication of what he can do in the field. And as Rob Silver noted, it’s remarkable to see a player like Machado go so far for this ball:
This is low key one of the craziest catches you’ll ever see.
It’s like the rover on a softball team who’s by FAR the best athlete on the field so just chases down any ball hit in the air. https://t.co/h2AxbuNWaO
— Rob Silver (@RobSilver) August 18, 2020
This is only one of the many highlights that have come out of this Padres-Rangers series. But hopefully this one won’t lead to as much silly backlash.
