Peterson flips over wall after eye-popping catch

OAKLAND -- If you play third base for the A’s long enough, the spacious foul ground of the Coliseum will eventually present the opportunity for a highlight-reel play on defense. On Saturday afternoon, Jace Peterson got his chance.

Breaking to his right on a ball popped up by Leody Taveras in the second inning of a 5-0 loss to the Rangers, Peterson raced out deep into left-field foul territory and made a brilliant catch on the run while stepping over the A’s bullpen mound. After making the grab, the third baseman’s momentum caused him to run into and flip over the bullpen wall, where a group of A’s relievers helped protect him from a hard fall.

“That’s probably one of the first ones that I’ve had kind of like that over here this year,” Peterson said. “The ball is up and you know you have a lot of room to try to make a play. The hardest part is navigating the mound over there, but the bullpen did a great job of letting me know the mound was there. I knew it was coming and was able to keep my footing.”

A quick look at the Statcast info will show just how spectacular a play this was. Peterson turned on the jets at a sprint speed of 33.9 feet per second to cover 111 feet, marking a career-best sprint speed on a putout for the 33-year-old infielder.

“One of the most athletic plays I’ve seen,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “We had an athletic third baseman here in [Matt] Chapman and we’ve seen him make similar plays. For Jace go that far and have the mound to go deal with, I’m just thankful he didn’t get hurt going into the bullpen.”

The defensive gem certainly caught the attention of the other side.

“What a play,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “You just appreciate what these guys can do. It was a long way to go. I’ve seen [Brandon] Crawford do that a couple of times. What a tremendous play.”

Peterson provided some more heroics in the seventh, when he broke up Rangers starter Jon Gray’s no-hit bid with a two-out single to right.