BOSTON -- On a day in which the Red Sox turned five double plays, it was the soaring Jackie Bradley Jr. who made the most aesthetically pleasing play in a 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays on Patriots' Day.
With Troy Tulowitzki at the plate in the seventh inning and one out, the center fielder was shaded back a bit. Once the Blue Jays' shortstop put wood to a Clay Buchholz offering, Bradley knew immediately that he hadn't gotten a good piece of the ball and was off to the races.
"I saw he didn't get much of it," Bradley said. "Then the wind just kind of killed it a little bit. I just wanted to get to it as quick as possible."
While left fielder Chris Young and shortstop Xander Bogaerts both made their way toward the shallow left-center-field flare, it was Bradley who emerged in the center of the mix, making a diving catch on the ball just before it contacted the outfield grass.
You've heard of the bat flip, but Jackie Bradley Jr. just invented the ball flip
"I just called it," said Bradley. "It was a ball that both of us probably could have got. I thought I got a good jump on it and I was able to make the call at the last second to try and make an attempt."
Though the bases were clear, Bradley was quick to get the ball over to Bogaerts, flipping it to him with a hook from his stomach.
"I just tried to flip it to Bogey to get it out of my hands in case they wanted to overturn it or something," Bradley said.