Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez robbed the San Diego Padres of what would have been a home run and robbed people's hearts with his Oscar-worthy show at T-Mobile Park.
San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the ball in the fourth inning that was about to go over to the wall, but J-Rod was there to prevent it. That was the plan.
He jumped high to catch the homer, then after landing, he acted like he failed by concealing the ball. He then strutted a little with a smirk on his face before showing the ball again to the joy of home fans.
The two-time All-Star spoke to reporters after the game his team won and revealed that he only thought about his act on the fly.
He also wanted to show off against his good friend Tatis who was already on a homerun trot while the ball was still up in the air.
"Obviously, me and Tatis are really good friends," he said.
"And for him being the one that hit it, it was just kind of like, 'Man, I got you.' I wasn't expecting him to be almost at third when I caught it, but it was a really nice play. We didn't cross paths. But I definitely saw the reaction from a lot of people."
Tatis knew what was coming from J-Rod
Tatis was sport about J-Rod's in-game entertainment.
"I knew he caught it," Tatis said. "I know him very well. But, [shoot]. ... I just knew he was going to try to do something like that, but I saw it go into his glove. Yeah, he got everybody."
Had J-Rod failed to catch it, Tatis would have been the one to go viral. According to Statcast, the ball was going at 108.7 mph and would have gone 410 feet to set a homer in 18 ballparks.
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