Headfirst into the netting?! This may be the wildest catch of 2024

MINNESOTA -- The Blue Jays sent out an extremely green lineup on Sunday. Of nine starters, just two had played at least 100 games in the Majors, but being inexperienced doesn’t equate to being unprepared.

That lesson comes courtesy of one of those seven relative newbies, 23-year-old second baseman Leo Jiménez, who made one of the most daring -- harrowing? -- plays on a foul ball you’ll ever see.

In the fourth inning of Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Twins at Target Field, Jiménez traveled 100 feet from his position at second base to track a high pop-up down the right-field line off the bat of Max Kepler. Jiménez split between first baseman Spencer Horwitz and right fielder Addison Barger and called for the ball. Then Jiménez managed to snag it at the net before tumbling headfirst into the stands.

Horwitz, who was just in front of the spot where Jiménez crashed through the net, had the best view of anyone at Target Field.

“We were running for it, and I knew we were close to the wall,” Horwitz said. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna go into this wall,’ and then I hear him say, ‘I got it! I got it!’ So I backed off and he comes flying by me, jumps into the wall, into the net and then the net gave out, because we were right by the door. Barger’s right there and I said, ‘Grab the ball! Grab the ball!’ because I knew there was a runner on.”

Barger pulled the ball out of Jiménez’s glove and fired it to the plate while Austin Martin tried to score from second on the play. Barger’s throw would’ve nailed Martin, but by rule, the play was dead once Jiménez left the field with the ball, so Martin was placed on third base.

All the while, team trainers were hustling across the field to check out Jiménez, who lay on his back between the rows of seats he crashed into.

“I see him laying there and he’s very still,” Horwitz said of Jiménez, who was not available for comment after the game. “Then I’m like, ‘Leo, you’re good! You’re OK -- just stay here, the trainer’s coming!”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider joined the training staff in evaluating Jiménez on the field.

“​​Just making sure he was OK with his head, that he wasn’t dizzy or anything, making sure he had his feet underneath him,” Schneider said. “I love that he stayed in, and I loved the effort he showed.”

Of course, the way baseball seems to work, the next batter hit another pop fly that Jiménez handled, though he barely had to move on that one. Jiménez even went on to drive in what at the time was a go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning, when he was hit on the elbow by a pitch from Griffin Jax with the bases loaded.

“He had a tough day at the yard, for a ribbie and a nice putout there,” Schneider said.

The play was emblematic of the exuberance of the Blue Jays’ current youth movement, embodied by players such as Jiménez, Horwitz, Barger and Will Wagner. Schneider said his players’ youth can be an asset in getting over tough losses like Sunday's.

“They’ll get over this,” Schneider said. “They’re probably already over it. I hope they are, because it’s a hard-fought game and … I love the way they went about it. I love the way the veteran guys were there supporting them. They’ll be fine going forward.”