Day Gets Even Better for Red Sox Thanks to Ellsbury

It didn't look pretty, but Jacoby Ellsbury's home-run saving catch was incredible, and, along with his bat, helped the Boston Red Sox sneak by the Baltimore Orioles. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher John Smoltz couldn’t keep the ball in the ballpark. The future Hall of Famer squandered a three-run lead by allowing a three-run home-run to Baltimore Orioles left-fielder Nolan Reimold in the third inning. Then he served up another blast in the sixth inning, this time a two-run shot to first baseman Aubrey Huff to relinquish the lead once more.

His outing could have been a lot worse if not for Jacoby Ellsbury.

The speedy center-fielder assumed his position in dead center, playing back a few steps to respect Luke Scott’s power. He watched Smoltz miss outside with a slider for ball-one, then watched him miss with another slider right down the pipe. Scott, as many Oriole hitters did before him, crushed the offering. The ball rocketed off his bat and sprung high to dead center-field where Ellsbury was stationed. It carried and carried and Ellsbury ran and ran. His eyes were fixed on the white sphere that spun high above him. Nothing could break his concentration.

In my father’s words, “Ellsbury has the type of speed that could get him in trouble. He’s almost too fast.” Many a time, because he gets such a good jump off contact and reaches his top speed so quickly, we wait for him to out-run the ball. He’s too smart to do that, we concluded. He knows when to cool his jets or rev his engine.

Scott punctured the ball. It was no routing fly-out. Ellsbury knew this at the crack of the bat. So once Scott made crisp contact, Ellsbury sprinted backwards, straight for the wall. He calculated the ball’s trajectory and, halfway to the wall, knew precisely where it would end up: in his glove.

As he reached the wall, the ball closed in on him. He jumped somewhat awkwardly, but given the result, it’s safe to assume that he was in control. Yet, it appeared he tried to propel himself up with his left arm to no avail. In spite of this, his athletic ability outweighed whatever glitch there may have been. He reached above the wall, made an attempt to snag the ball, came down, and landed hard on the ground.

He sat there for a split second, showing no emotion whatsoever to torture the thousands of Red Sox fans that, in the words of Sportscenter’s Scott Van Pelt (the wittiest anchorman I have ever heard), “took over Baltimore like locusts.” No one knew what to think, that is until a glimpse of white was spotted between his webbing. Ellsbury, done toying with the announcers and forty-four thousand-plus that packed Camden Yards, a majority of which donning Red Sox red instead of Orioles orange, closed his glove, raised it to show umpires what the Orioles dreaded, got up, and trotted nonchalantly through the outfield grass with a sly grin. He then vehemently slapped hands with right-fielder Rocco Baldelli on his way back to the dugout with the final out of the frame firmly in his grasp.

Baltimore’s announcer Gary Thorne, covering the game for MASN, summed up the magnificent defensive play: “Ellsbury going back! Ellsbury at the wall! And…that ball is…caught!! Oh…what a catch! Jacoby Ellsbury!…Going to the top of the wall to save a home-run off the bat off Luke Scott.” No one could have called the catch by the best center-fielder in the game any better.

With his catch, it was as if he said, "if you are going to hit one out, Luke Scott, you have to hit it farther, like I did not twenty minutes ago, because if you don’t catch all of it, I’ll snatch it out of thin air and make it a long walk back to the bench."

As if he’d done enough, Ellsbury not only took a home-run away, but hit one as well, an inning earlier. He also collected two other hits, scored, and stole his 47th bag. Oh, and the Red Sox won by the run he saved.