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Two years, plus a day, ago: Grichuk makes a game saving catch

Toronto Blue Jays v Houston Astros Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

I missed this yesterday but 2 years ago, plus a days, Randal Grichuk made this catch:

To set it up, the Blue Jays entered the bottom of the ninth up 6-3. Seunghwan Oh was just into the game. J.A. Happ started and went 6 innings allowing 3 runs. Joe Biagini and John Axford each pitched a scoreless inning.

Oh gave up a walk, to Tony Kemp, and a single, to Josh Reddick. Up comes George Springer, as the tying run. Oh gets to a 1-2 count and then Springer hit a ball that looked outside and a little high. He hit it hard the opposite way. We all thought it was a tie game. but Randal Grichuk got to the wall, jumped and made the catch. I’m guessing it must have been 3 to 4 feet over the wall in right.

Oh, maybe with a burst of adrenaline, struck out the next two batters (two replacement level players, I’ll have to look up the names....Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve. Never heard of them).

A lot of things go into a catch like that. One little decision made the catch possible: Grichuk started the game in center with Granderson in right. Going into the bottom of the ninth, Gibby put Kevin Pillar into the game, in center, and moved Grichuk to right. Granderson wouldn’t have made that catch. Up by three, making a defensive switch wouldn’t seem to be important, but it turned out to be very important.

Randal was already going to be a star of this game. He hit a 2-run homer in the eighth, making the game 6-3 Jays.

Curtis Granderson hit two home runs, but after the catch, no one remembered. He also was part of the weirdest moment of the game, hitting a popup that never came down. Honest.

You would have thought the big news of the game would have been that we scored 4 runs off, and beat, Justin Verlander.