Tuesday night was an incredible night for MLB catches at the wall. The Reds’ Billy Hamilton made this remarkable one after climbing the wall to take a hit away from the Padres’ Carlos Asuaje, and the White Sox’s Adam Engel stole a home run from the Astros’ Brian McCann. Not to be outdone, the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig made his own home-run-robbing catch, jumping above the wall to make a great grab off the Diamondbacks’ J.D. Martinez:
#PuigYourHomeRunRobber pic.twitter.com/ZOTXFu7qlv
— megan BRAUNY FOREVER brown (@thatgirlondeck) August 9, 2017
It’s impressive how well Puig lands there, and how he’s able to hang on to this one. He crashed into the netting a bit, but was able to get his feet down and keep the ball in his glove. And the altitude he got leaping above the wall is remarkable, too. This shows off Puig’s defensive skills, which are a key part of his value right now; Fangraphs has him with 1.4 wins above replacement overall, but a positive 2.1 defensive WAR and a -0.7 at the plate (where he’s hitting .258/.332/.479 this season). Grabs like this one certainly help Puig’s case for playing time, though.
It’s also interesting that this happened in the same night as Engel’s grab, which had a lot of the same elements. But Puig’s grab happened right in front of the Diamondbacks’ mascot, so that’s perhaps worth a few style points. In any case, Tuesday night was not a lucky night for a few MLB hitters.
[Megan Brown on Twitter]
