One of the best things about baseball is that something you’ve never seen before can happen at any moment. The Boston Red Sox provided one of those moments on Wednesday night.
With the Red Sox leading 7-1 in the ninth inning, Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk hit a line drive into right field, directly to Wilyer Abreu. Abreu gathered the ball and came up firing, skipping it to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe for the putout, ending the game.
Kirk was perhaps one of the few hitters Abreu could have caught at first base. His 24.2 feet per second sprint speed is in the eight-slowest among qualified hitters. Red Sox manager Alex Cora wasn’t surprised by the Gold Glovers’ heads-up play.
“It’s a great play, understanding whose running, the ball got hit hard, and it was basically a routine play for him,” Cora said.
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It’s hard to call the play “routine” when the opportunity rarely ever arises. It required a perfect storm of a slow runner and a hard hit ball directly to Abreu.
According to Christopher Smith and Ian Browne, Abreu’s throw went 93.5 mph from right field to first base. That number exactly matches Blue Jay’s starter Max Scherzer’s average four-seam fastball velocity on Wednesday.
According to Baseball Savant, it was the eighth 9-3 groundout since 2008, when pitch tracking was introduced. Two of the eight came in the ninth inning or later, though neither ended the game.
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With the win, the Red Sox magic number to clinch a playoff berth is at two. They finish a three-game series with the Blue Jays on Thursday night.
