Noda's no-look toss conjures memories of brilliant (and wacky!) plays

OAKLAND – A player never wants to mishandle a routine grounder on defense. Had Ryan Noda not done so on Monday night, however, we never would have been graced with one of the most dazzling plays in baseball so far in 2023.

In the eighth inning of Oakland’s 5-2 loss to the D-backs at the Coliseum, a ground ball hit by Geraldo Perdomo kicked off Noda’s glove. Chasing it down after it ricocheted into foul territory, the first baseman acted solely on instincts as he barehanded the ball and performed an incredible no-look flip through his legs to A’s reliever Adrián Martínez at first base, beating Perdomo by about a full step.

“I was going for a backhand,” Noda said. “Ball kicked back to the right and went right off my palm. I made a nice recovery. We needed that out. Adrián did a great job on getting over, so kudos to him in keeping his foot on the bag. It wasn’t just me. It was him getting over in time and being able to stretch for it.”

The seemingly ordinary play that turned extraordinary harkened back memories of a couple of similar exceptional defensive gems in years past. White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle made a between-the-legs glove flip to Paul Konerko at first base before falling to the ground in 2010. Bartolo Colon, while pitching for the Mets in 2015, fielded a slow roller up the first-base line and executed a perfect behind-the-back flip to first base from about 40 feet out.

By the time Noda got back to his locker after the game, his phone was flooded with texts from his friends back home in Cincinnati of replays of his defensive highlight.

“A couple of my buddies sent it to me,” Noda said. “It’s funny. It’s just a rough fielding play turned into a good play, so I’ll take it.”

With the A’s now an MLB-worst 9-34 on the year (the worst record in franchise history after 43 games), Noda’s resilience shown on the play was certainly appreciated by manager Mark Kotsay.

“I didn’t realize until the replay that he actually threw it between his legs,” Kotsay said. “That’s a play where it goes really bad because it’s a pretty easy ground ball to field to his left. Instead of giving up on it, the effort level to continue to make that play and get the out says a lot about Ryan.”

For a rebuilding A’s squad that is utilizing 2023 as a means to identify players who could emerge as contributors beyond this season, Noda sticks out as a bright spot, both defensively and offensively. Entering the night, his .406 on-base percentage and 27 walks both led all Major League rookies, while his .824 OPS ranked fourth.

With a rebuild comes growing pains, and that was also evident on Monday.

Shortly after Noda’s amazing play, the A’s looked to be mounting a late rally in the bottom of the eighth. Jace Peterson’s leadoff homer to cut the deficit to three runs was followed by a walk to Jordan Diaz and Nick Allen’s single, which brought Esteury Ruiz to the plate as the possible tying run. But as Ruiz hit a popup into shallow left field that was caught, Diaz, who was on second base, ran on contact and was easily doubled up to deflate the comeback bid.

“Just an error on his part,” Kotsay said of Diaz. “Error in his judgment of the way he read the ball. Down by three, that’s too aggressive. At that point, he’s got to see the ball land on the ground before he takes off. It was a big play. Took the momentum from the game. He’ll learn from it.”