ATLANTA — The Braves had just taken the lead in Game 4 of the 2021 World Series with back-to-back homers from Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler. A deep shot off the bat of Astros leadoff man Jose Altuve looked like it had a shot to even things back up.
Instead, Braves left fielder Eddie Rosario made a possibly game-saving catch. Let’s have a look:
First things first, we’ll point out that the ball certainly wasn’t going to leave the yard for a home run, save for some kind of freaky Jose Canseco off-the-head nonsense. But it was still dangerous. It was only a one-run lead and Altuve can run. With the way Rosario was approaching that ball, had he missed it, it’s pretty easy to see Altuve ending up on third base with a triple. Sure, there were two outs, but the tying run being only 90 feet away with Michael Brantley at the plate is a pretty scary proposition.
One of the fun things about the catch was Rosario didn’t exactly look like the smoothest outfielders in the world on it. In fact, he revealed after the game that he basically just threw his glove at it before saying, “wow, what a catch,” as if he were surprised at how well things turned out on the game-changing play.
“I threw my glove up at it,” Rosario said.
His manager joined in. Brian Snitker said that he didn’t want to watch the catch again and then joked it won’t be used in any baseball instructional videos.
Ultimately, though, the only important thing was that the ball off the bat of Altuve was nestled into Rosario’s glove by the end of the play. The best defensive play of the series to this point was a pretty big reason the Braves held on in Game 4 and took a 3-1 series lead. Style points? Who cares? Just get the job done and win the game. Rosario and the Braves pulled it off.
