Revere robs HR with catch of the year bid

ATLANTA -- Center fielder Ben Revere has made his share of great catches for the Nationals this season, but the one he made in Friday's 7-6 victory over Braves may have topped them all.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, it looked like Freddie Freeman hit his 25th homer to right-center field off right-hander Tanner Roark. However, Revere leapt high and made a spectacular catch as he crashed against the wall to end the inning. Right fielder Bryce Harper, who had a front-row seat for the grab, was in disbelief and gave Revere a high-five.
"The ball sound pretty good off the bat, so I thought Freeman got all of it," Revere said. "Then I looked up, I say, 'It's already a home run.' As I'm getting closer, I may have a chance at this. I leaped and then I had a chance."

Freeman's drive had an exit velocity of 102 mph and a launch angle of 35 degrees, per Statcast™. There have been 44 batted balls with those traits this year, and 24 of them were homers. Making his first step at 0.43 seconds, Revere's top speed was 19.7 mph and he covered 117 feet with a route efficiency of 97.5 percent.
Teammate Clint Robinson called it the best catch he's seen while on a field. Roark called the catch "unbelievable."
"One of the greatest catches I ever saw," Roark said. "I thought it was a home run and then Revere comes down and Bryce is on his knees saying, 'Holy cow.'"
Manager Dusty Baker saw a still photo of the catch and he said Revere should get it framed.
"That was some catch," Baker said. "And as baseball would have it, [Braves outfielder] Nick Markakis takes a home run away from [Robinson]. I don't think I ever saw that in back-to-back innings."
As for Freeman, he was in disbelief.
"Turner Field strikes again," he said. "This place takes away homers with the best of them, and 20 more games until maybe we get a better hitters' park. It was an unbelievable catch, so instead of hitting it to the right-center-field gap, I hit it to the left-center-field gap in the eighth."