Catching is hard enough as it is, but the Tigers’ Dillon Dingler had to deal with an additional obstacle behind the plate in Tuesday night's 4-3 loss to the Yankees at Comerica Park.
Dingler was in a good spot to receive Detroit reliever Kyle Finnegan’s 97 mph fastball with one out in the eighth, but the pitch completely fooled Yankees rookie Spencer Jones. Jones whiffed so hard that his helmet popped off, bounced off his bat and tumbled down toward the plate.
With the baseball already transferred to his hand to throw around the infield, Dingler reached out and caught Jones’ helmet in his glove with relative ease. He tossed it back to the New York center fielder with a quick movement of his glove hand.
Already one of MLB’s best offensive backstops -- he entered Tuesday with 18 home runs and an .871 OPS -- Dingler can now say he’s done something pretty rare behind the plate, too.