Peterson flips over wall after eye-popping catch
OAKLAND — If you play third base for the A’s lengthy sufficient, the spacious foul floor of the Coliseum will ultimately current the chance for a highlight-reel play on protection. On Saturday afternoon, Jace Peterson received his probability.
Breaking to his proper on a ball popped up by Leody Taveras within the second inning of a 5-0 loss to the Rangers, Peterson raced out deep into left-field foul territory and made a superb catch on the run whereas stepping over the A’s bullpen mound. After making the seize, the third baseman’s momentum prompted him to run into and flip over the bullpen wall, the place a bunch of A’s relievers helped shield him from a tough fall.
“That’s probably one of the first ones that I’ve had kind of like that over here this year,” Peterson stated. “The ball is up and you know you have a lot of room to try to make a play. The hardest part is navigating the mound over there, but the bullpen did a great job of letting me know the mound was there. I knew it was coming and was able to keep my footing.”
A fast take a look at the Statcast data will present simply how spectacular a play this was. Peterson turned on the jets at a dash pace of 33.9 ft per second to cowl 111 ft, marking a career-best dash pace on a putout for the 33-year-old infielder.
“One of the most athletic plays I’ve seen,” stated A’s supervisor Mark Kotsay. “We had an athletic third baseman here in [Matt] Chapman and we’ve seen him make similar plays. For Jace go that far and have the mound to go deal with, I’m just thankful he didn’t get hurt going into the bullpen.”
The defensive gem definitely caught the eye of the opposite facet.
“What a play,” Rangers supervisor Bruce Bochy stated. “You just appreciate what these guys can do. It was a long way to go. I’ve seen [Brandon] Crawford do that a couple of times. What a tremendous play.”
Peterson offered some extra heroics within the seventh, when he broke up Rangers starter Jon Gray’s no-hit bid with a two-out single to proper.
