CINCINNATI -- The Reds waited out a 40-minute rain delay before a 6-3 win Saturday night over the D-backs, but Billy Hamilton wasted little time in making a defensive impact.
After Matt Harvey retired David Peralta to lead off the game, Paul Goldschmidt smashed a line drive to deep left-center field. Hamilton tracked the ball down at the rear of the warning track, leaping at the last second to snag Goldschmidt's bid for extra bases before colliding with the wall.
"That would've been a rough start," Harvey said, who wound up pitching seven innings of two-run ball. "Watching him out there, he makes it look so easy it's almost not a shock."
Per Statcast™, Hamilton raced 123 feet in 6.3 seconds for the out, overcoming a 24 percent catch probability when the ball left the bat. The grab was Hamilton's sixth 5-star catch, as rated by Statcast™, equaling him with Harrison Bader and Lorenzo Cain for the MLB lead. Hamilton entered the night tied with Bader and Ender Inciarte for the MLB lead with 15 Outs Above Average.
"We see him do it all the time and we take it for granted, but we shouldn't," Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "He does things out there nobody else can do."
Hamilton also impacted the game offensively, finishing 2-for-4 with a key run-scoring single that increased the Reds' lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning. He added two stolen bases, too.