When a pop fly off the bat of Cubs catcher Willson Contreras floated out to left field, Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer begun tracking it. He tracked it and tracked it, until he clearly couldn’t even see it anymore (so maybe he wasn’t tracking it, but just taking a backwards walk).
Lucky for Mercer, his left fielder, Starling Marte, is as cool as a cucumber. Marte bails out Mercer on the catch and then catches Mercer, himself, as he falls to the ground.
Check it out:
Marte was awarded an out and a save on the play.Â
I haven’t needed to use the word nonchalant all that often in my life, but I think it applies to here. Marte so smoothly fields the ball (with a tumbling Jordy Mercer barreling towards him), and catches Mercer immediately after (before giving him a teammate bear hug). Even the announcers didn’t realize he caught the ball.
And listen, I’m not saying that Marte is the best defensive Pirates outfielder, but at least now you can say he’s way smoother than his counterpart in right field:
Those Wrigley ghosts … pic.twitter.com/xxQ88fvI5N
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 15, 2015