Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Luis Severino jumped from behind Gary Sanchez to snatch a popup

The sun was shining brightly at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon during the Yankees' 4-1 win over the Rays, and Luis Severino was in terrific form. Tampa Bay hitters had no answer for his variety of pitches, as he blanked them on three hits over eight innings.
Severino was responsible for nine strikeouts during his outing, and at the start of the fifth, he notched another out on his own -- though it came at the expense of his catcher, Gary Sánchez. Carlos Gómez hit a high popup near home plate in foul territory that Sanchez carefully tracked.
Severino could see that the sun was making it a little tricky for Sanchez, so even though it seemed like the catcher had a beat on it, Severino took matters into his own hands:

"He didn't say 'I got it' until I was there, so I went for it," Severino said afterward to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "I went there and when I jumped, I heard 'I got it.' But I already was in the air."
Well, it was an out anyway! Sanchez was only mildly miffed that he was denied a putout:

That made for a funny moment between Severino and Sanchez. "He said, 'You took it from my glove,'" Severino joked after the game.
Sanchez shared his side of the story, too. "Once I turned around, the sun was right there in my eyes," he said. "I was able to get in a good spot to catch it and that's when I heard some footsteps very close to me. I was very surprised he jumped and caught it. I think it's just his instinct to make a play there.
"I had it! And when I closed my glove, I just caught his glove."
CC Sabathia got a kick out of it:

Aaron Judge was quite amused by Severino as well. "He's an athlete out there. I think he's just trying to win that Gold Glove," he said. "So he did a pretty good job of it. That was pretty impressive right there."
Don't worry, Gary. All of Severino's strikeouts count as your putouts in the box score anyway, so this was just Severino getting back at you for that technicality.

BarberJordan
beephero
AP_702417634020
NYC