LEAP OF FAITH
McCormick on his grab: ‘I was gonna run through a wall and catch it, no matter what’
PHILADELPHIA — As J.T. Realmuto’s fly ball sailed toward right-center field, Chas McCormick’s eyes never strayed from its arc, even as his feet raced to keep up. The ball started its sharp descent and appeared destined to become a one-out double or triple. The Astros’ center fielder leapt off one foot and stretched his right arm to full capacity as his left arm braced for impact with the fence. A raucous stadium salivating for a ninth-inning rally was silenced.
With the ball encased firmly in his glove, McCormick laid starfished on his back on the warning track. The Philadelphia-area native stared up at a horde of red-andblue-clad fans, and identified with the devastation on their faces.
“When I was looking at them it kind of brought me back to when I was 10 years old, when the Phillies lost in the World Series (in) 2009,” McCormick said. “It was weird. It felt like a dream when I was laying there looking at those fans.”
His sympathy was overtaken by triumph. McCormick felt in control. He knew he had the ball, that he had denied the Phillies a chance to put the tying run on base and put the Astros one out away from their eventual 3-2 victory in Thursday’s Game 5 of the World Series. Few others in the ballpark realized it until seconds later.
On the mound, Astros closer Ryan Pressly put hands atop his head with his mouth agape in amazement.
Pitcher José Urquidy and the rest of the men in the Astros’ bullpen, which is elevated above the home bullpen in center field, didn’t have a vantage point to see whether McCormick had caught the ball. They assumed it was an extra-base hit. Urquidy said he only realized what must have happened when he saw Realmuto clasp his hands above his head in disbelief that mirrored Pressly’s.
“Holy s—-,” Pressly said of his thoughts at the moment. “I just keep replaying Chas jumping into the wall for me. I think I owe him a beer, a dinner — something, for sure.”
Astros manager Dusty Baker watched Realmuto’s ball carry and said his first thought was, “Oh, no, stay in the park.”
“And then I was saying, ‘Man, I hope it’s not too high off the wall because that’s a double or maybe a triple with Realmuto running,’ and especially tough because we’ve been trying to play the caroms of the wall here and you don’t really know as a visiting team,” Baker said. “McCormick’s always bragged about his basketball skills, and so I guess I got to believe him.”
When Realmuto made contact with Pressly’s 1-1 pitch, McCormick was shifted to right-center knowing that the Phillies’ righthanded catcher has a penchant for oppositefield hits.
“Honestly, I thought he hit it out,” McCormick said. “But at that point I was being really aggressive. I was gonna run through a wall and catch it, no matter what. Because earlier in the game I wasn’t as aggressive, so I made sure to get the ball as much as possible.”
In the sixth inning, McCormick pulled up on Bryson Stott’s fly ball to right-center, thinking that right fielder Kyle Tucker had called for the ball. It nearly cost the Astros a hit before Tucker lunged forward and made the catch.
Tucker, who won his first Gold Glove on Wednesday, said the two spoke about the play, but that he didn’t feel the need to encourage McCormick to be more aggressive. He knew he would be.
On Realmuto’s ball, Tucker didn’t have a play. He rushed over as backup in case the ball caromed off the wall, anticipating an extra-base hit that would put a runner in scoring position with Phillies designated hitter Bryce Harper due up next.
“It started carrying a little bit and I was like, ‘Oh, please don’t,’” Tucker said. “It’s at the top of the wall, he’s running back. We’re on the road with everyone cheering, so everyone’s rooting against us, hoping that that ball falls.”
Tucker saw the ball go into McCormick’s glove. The only assistance required of him was to help his teammate up off the dirt.
“I was like, ‘C’mon Chas, get up,’” Tucker joked. “I don’t think he could believe it. He was walking around like, ‘Oh my god’ and watching the replay up there. But that’s a huge spot in the game, this is home for him, and to do that in this ballpark on the biggest stage in the World Series is huge.”
Although McCormick clarified that his collision with the fence “didn’t hurt that much,” Astros fans might have winced thinking of the crash into the wall that injured center fielder Jake Meyers in last year’s AL Division Series in Chicago.
Phillies fans might have recalled Aaron Rowand breaking his nose while making a similar catch in a regular-season game at Citizens Bank Park in 2006. McCormick certainly did.
“It’s funny because I always talk about all the guys on that ‘08 roster, ‘09, and I was always forgetting Aaron Rowand,” McCormick said. “That catch he made will never leave my head. I watched that catch live on TV and it was amazing. But yeah, I was trying to be like Aaron Rowand out there.”
Before the catch, McCormick had authored a forgettable game on offense, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the ninth inning. He reemerged from the dugout and quickly eviscerated those woes with a spectacular play.
“At that point, you don’t have a good day at the plate, but the ninth inning you have to play defense,” he said. “You can’t worry about your offensive things. But yeah, I’m speechless. I’m just grateful we won. The bullpen did great as usual. So yeah, defense is huge.”