Even Trout was floored by this insane catch

Calhoun takes flight to rob Bogaerts of extra bases

August 9th, 2019

BOSTON -- Angels right fielder has one American League Gold Glove Award to his name from 2015, but he may never top the diving catch he made in the fourth inning of a 3-0 loss at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts led off the inning with a slicing line drive to the right-field corner off starter Dillon Peters, sending Calhoun racing toward the right-field foul pole. Running out of room, Calhoun hurled his body toward the corner and came away with a perfectly timed jaw-dropping catch.

“I had a front-row seat for that catch," said center fielder Mike Trout. "It was pretty incredible. I didn’t think he was going to get to that catch. I’m happy he made the play and didn’t get his face jammed up against that wall. He was close to it. But what a great play."

It was a 4-star catch, according to Statcast, with a 35 percent catch probability, and Calhoun had to cover 70 feet in 4.1 seconds. Calhoun, though, did his best to downplay it after the game despite the spectacular effort.

"I thought I had it off the bat," Calhoun said. "I got a pretty good jump on it. Just gave it a shot and came up with it."

But Angels manager Brad Ausmus and Peters both came away impressed by the leaping snare.

"I actually didn’t know if he was going to catch that one off the bat," Ausmus said. "He closed ground quickly and he’s never afraid to put his body in harm’s way. That wasn’t on the grass. It was on the track."

Said Peters: “It was slicing. But I saw him tracking and he made an awesome play. He got a really good beat on the ball, and it’s awesome when your team plays defense behind you like that, especially because that was to lead off the inning.”

Even Red Sox fans applauded Calhoun after the replay was shown on the video board in center field. Bogaerts said it simply held up in the air for too long, giving Calhoun time to track it down.

"I wasn’t even mad, because once I hit it, I thought it was going to fall,” Bogaerts said. “But then I saw the ball kept in the air too long, and I’m like, ‘It’s not wanting to come down. He’s pretty good, so I think there might be a good chance he catches it.’ The ball just never was coming down. It was just sailing off, but in the air. It didn’t make it."