Denzel Clarke, a rookie outfielder for the Athletics, made what some baseball fans are calling one of the best catches they’ve ever seen Monday after he scaled the outfield wall to rob a Los Angeles Angels hitter of a home run.
Clarke pulled off the Spider-Man-like move after Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel smacked the ball high and deep toward left-center field in what would have been a homer to give LA a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
But Clarke jumped up at the warning track, used his foot to boost his body over the outfield wall, and miraculously caught the ball before dropping back down to the field.
Clarke swiftly celebrated the unreal grab as Athletics pitcher Grant Holman — and Schanuel — appeared stunned.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” said Dallas Braden, one of the Athletics TV broadcasters, of the play.
“I’ve heard the list, I’ve seen the list of the greatest catches you’re ever going to see in your life. If you don’t have room for this one on your list, we’re watching two different sports,” he added.
Clarke has made a number of jaw-dropping, acrobatic defensive plays in the outfield since his debut on May 23.
On May 30, he climbed the outfield wall like a ladder to rob Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk of a home run.
In a game against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, he snagged Jorge Mateo’s deep hit at the warning track just before running into the outfield wall and retained control of the ball in his glove to record the final out of the inning.
As a result, he won back-to-back MLB Electric Play of the Week awards.
This makes him just the second player to pull off such a feat (the Detroit Tigers’ Riley Greene pulled this off in 2022) since the league began to give out the award in 2019, per the Athletics, and his play on Monday makes him a leading candidate to win it again.
Baseball fans on X, formerly Twitter, were astonished by the play.
