CATCH AS CATCH CAN: Curtis Granderson runs down Alberto Callaspo’s drive in the sixth inning of yesterday’s 10-8 Yankees loss to the Angels, three innings after crashing into the wall after catching a blast by Mike Trout (inset). (Getty Images; Neil Miller)
Curtis Granderson already had made an indelible imprint on the game, if not the outfield wall. The Yankees center fielder had slugged his 25th homer and run down a hellacious blast by the Angels’ Mike Trout, finally hauling in the extra-bases bid about two subway stops from where he began the third-inning play.
Now Granderson was up in the ninth, part of a furious Yankees comeback attempt from five runs down. The bases were loaded, the Yankees were still down three and Granderson faced lefty reliever Scott Downs, against whom he had been 0-for-12 in his career — with one walk. And eight strikeouts. He made it two walks.
“Downs always has had really good success against me,” Granderson said after his RBI walk got the Yankees as close as they would get, 10-8, in their loss to the Angels at the Stadium. “He’s a very difficult guy to pick up. … The main thing was try to get something up in the zone and try to put it in play. I had a couple pitches, hit them foul.”
One of those fouls sent a charge through the Yankees faithful, although Granderson knew the 1-2 breaking ball was going nowhere.
“As soon as I hit it, I knew it was foul. I knew I didn’t hit it good, hit it off the end,” Granderson said. “Even if it was fair, it was probably going to be a routine out.”
Granderson settled for the walk and his second RBI of the day after hitting that pitch not nearly as far as he had to go for Trout’s smash.
“It’s an unbelievable catch,” raved Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “Trout’s taken so many from us, it was nice to get him for a change.”
But it took a really special play to do so.
Trout made his bid against Ivan Nova just to the left of straight-away center. Granderson turned and ran. And just kept going. Finally the ball settled into his glove on this fully extended left arm, a blink shy of the wall.
“I’m in my normal depth and once it was hit, I knew I had to go back to get to it,” Granderson said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get underneath it, if it was hit far enough or if it was going to go over the fence. But by the time I was able to look up I saw I still had some room and was able to reel it in.”
Then self-preservation instincts took over as body and wall met and Granderson ended up dropping to the warning track.
“This wall in particular is probably the hardest wall in all of baseball because it’s just all solid concrete behind it … so you’ve got to be careful going into it,” said Granderson, who made another terrific diving catch in the sixth inning on Alberto Callaspo’s sac fly to right center.
“The good thing about days like today when it’s so dense and humid, the ball kind of stays up so it helps you get under it,” Grandson said.