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Braves’ Michael Harris II made a catch so spectacular the winning Phillies praised him

Posted on by Vaseline

PHILADELPHIA — Michael Harris II made a home run-slaying catch Saturday night so utterly spectacular that if it had happened in a postseason victory, it would be hailed as one of the greatest catches in history.

Honestly, it was so good.

But the Atlanta Braves center fielder made the catch — the best of his young career so far — in a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, who extended their lead in the National League East to six games over the second-place Braves.

Max Fried threw seven solid innings for the Braves, but Zack Wheeler pitched like the ace he is for the Phillies, limiting the Braves to four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts over seven innings. Atlanta’s best chance to score came on Matt Olson’s would-be game-tying homer in the sixth inning, but it was caught by center fielder Johan Rojas.

Rojas made a beautiful catch. Harris made a catch for the ages.

Unfortunately, it came in a season-ending loss that mattered, so there was no postgame celebration for Harris’ highlight in the locker room. But many teammates told him that his perfectly timed, leaping, spinning, acrobatic catch to rob Austin Hays of a potential home run in the seventh inning was the best thing they’d ever seen.

“Michael’s play was unbelievable,” Fried said. “I’ve never hit a home run pitching before. A couple of times I’ve come close, but never to that extent. I mean, the way he slowed down to get the timing right, and to do it all in one motion, it’s remarkable. He’s unbelievable out there.”

“Probably the best catch I’ve ever had, that’s for sure.”

The men on the other side had similar opinions about what they saw.

“Unbelievable,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “The Harris catch is one of the best catches you’ll ever see in this game. I couldn’t believe he came up with it.”

Several Phillies press conference observers said it was the best catch they’ve seen at Citizens Bank Park since it opened in 2004. The Phillies have seen Harris rob them of extra-base hits before, but never with this degree of difficulty.

In fact, no one had ever seen him make such a good catch. Harris confirmed as much when the 23-year-old was asked how he would rate the catch at every level he’s played, from his childhood to the MLB, the Atlanta native’s third season in the majors.

“I would say (number) one,” he said, pausing to think about it. “Probably one. Yeah. Because I actually had to go over the wall to get it, so probably one.”

He smiled and added, “I’ve had a few over the years that I wanted to bring back, but I couldn’t. It was good to get that one and make it to the top of my board.”

Oh, he brought it back, that’s right. His glove and arm were extended past the fence before Harris’ body, bent at the waist over the top of the padding of the fence, recoiled in a most athletic movement as he bounced back onto the field, without losing his balance, and raised the glove to show that he held the ball.

Hays had passed first base and when he saw that Harris had caught the ball, he smiled and threw his hands in the air.

“That was insane,” said Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman, who was warming up in the bullpen behind right-center field and was closest to the play, maybe 10 yards away, when it happened. He was one of several relievers who threw up their hands and/or were seen on TV uttering words of amazement.

“We have this weird, random ability to hit the ball in perfect spots for him to make plays like that,” Hoffman said. “It’s gotten old. (He smiled.) But I mean, it’s so much fun to watch guys that can do that. Like, bring that level of athleticism to our game. Because how many guys do you really get to show that in our game? That’s real athleticism.

“It was a great view. I just wish he had missed it. I wish it had gone another six inches higher.”

Hoffman and most of the Phillies’ other relievers saw the upper half of Harris’ body come over the fence and his momentum carried his arm over and down with the ball before he pulled it back, the ball in his glove, the padding atop the fence serving almost as a springboard as Harris fell back with his feet on the warning track.

Hays had taken a first-pitch curveball to the outside edge of the plate, and he hit it 103 mph off the bat in a high 37-degree arc just right of the straightaway. At first it looked like an out to the warning track, but the ball carried and carried.

“I was running with the ball and then, I think a couple steps before the wall, I looked at it to see where I was,” said Harris, who slowed down briefly before reaching the warning track to make sure he had his steps right as he approached the wall. “I was trying to time it perfectly to get up and get a glove on it.”

The ball’s hang time gave Harris time to gauge it as he went back, and he timed his jump perfectly. It’s a relatively low fence in the middle, only 6 feet, and Harris, a left-hander, looked over his right shoulder as he ran toward it, following the ball the entire way, even as he jumped.

He extended his left hand to steady himself for impact, reached his right arm and glove over and past the soft top of the fence and grabbed the ball, surprising the Phillies’ relievers who had the best view in the sold-out stadium.

Harris was asked how it felt when he realized he had caught and held the ball.

“At first it was one of those feelings where you hit and you don’t feel (a home run) right away,” he said. “It hit perfectly into the web and when I came back out of the gate, I saw the Phillies pitchers in awe. That’s when I really knew I caught it. So it was pretty cool to make that catch and then (also) have a couple of Phillies fans, despite the rivalry, tip their hats to me and applaud me.

“It didn’t really hit me until I saw their (relievers’) faces. I knew I had made contact with it, and when (I) squeezed and felt some weight, I knew it was there.”

Brian Snitker has seen many great outfielders in his 4 1/2 decades as a coach and manager in the minor-league system with the Braves and the major-league team. He knows when he sees something special, the play of someone who has a gift that few others have.

“That’s instinct and God-given stuff that these types of players have, honestly,” Snitker said of Harris’ catch. “It’s not something you work on; you don’t learn it. It’s a God-given ability to do that, instinct and the whole thing. He helped us win a game in Minnesota (last week) with a play like that, coming off the bench and probably making a game-saving play. He’s a must-see TV show, I can tell you that.”

(Photo: Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)