JBJ's homer robbery nabs Top Play honors
Over the last few years, we’ve seen plenty of jaw-dropping plays from Jackie Bradley Jr., and his catch Wednesday in Baltimore immediately jumped onto the list.
On Monday, Major League Baseball honored Bradley Jr. with its Play of the Week Award presented by W.B. Mason for his game-saving catch in a 2-1 win over the Orioles.
Trey Mancini stepped to the plate for the Orioles in the 11th inning with Boston and Baltimore locked in a 1-1 tie. He rocketed a Ryan Brasier pitch to center field with a 101.6 mph exit velocity, and it appeared the O's would win on a walk-off home run.
Not with JBJ playing center field. Bradley jumped up, scaled the wall and caught the ball over the fence -- snatching it from the Orioles’ bullpen. The amazing play preserved the tie, and the Red Sox went on to score in the top of the 12th and close out the win in the bottom half of the inning.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora called the catch “unreal.”
“I just went back, tracked it, got a good jump on it, timed up my footsteps the way I wanted to and got up there and executed,” Bradley said of the catch after the game.
This is the fourth tiime an outfielder has won the award in its inaugural season. San Francisco's Kevin Pillar won last week, and Milwaukee's Lorenzo Cain has won it twice.