SEATTLE -- Ji Hwan ... no way!
Yeah, Ji Hwan Bae did it again.
The Pirates' occasionally tantalizing rookie might've shown yet again that he's got no business fielding any position other than the outfield, tracking down a rocket off the bat of the Mariners' J.P Crawford to deep center field in the ninth inning Sunday at T-Mobile Park, then clinging to it upon crashing into the wall:
Want another angle?
"Hell of a catch. Unbelievable catch," Derek Shelton would marvel afterward. "Not only that, but the ball Julio Rodriguez hit on him earlier in the game, to get that kind of jump on it ... that was outstanding, too. But the catch in the ninth was unbelievable. And we continue to see him do really good things in the outfield."
The Rodriguez liner was in the sixth:
I asked Bae for a tour of that catch, and I actually had to clarify that I meant the one in the ninth inning that allowed the Pirates to take the game to extra innings before losing, 6-3, in the 10th:
"It was going over my head, and there was a little swirl to it, too," he'd reply through team interpreter Daniel Park. "Also, the sun was covering my vision a little, as well. But that was the only way I could've caught it."
Swirl? As in whatever forced him have to reach backward as he did?
"Yeah, but I couldn't turn because of the sun."
My goodness.
Was he surprised he caught it?
"No."
I then asked what collided hardest with the wall, and he pointed to his knee but smiled and insisted he was fine.
Finally, I asked him to pick one between this and that Monster-piece at Fenway Park in April.
"Fenway."
Even bigger smile with that. Understandably.
Here's a question for everyone else now: Why's this kid ever seeing a single play at second base?
