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The Pirates’ Travis Snider Made One Of The Catches Of The Year Today

For a game with ostensibly no meaning, today’s Mets-Pirates matchup sure is eventful. You had Keith Hernandez getting rid of his longtime facial hair. You have R.A. Dickey going for his 20th win, which is still a widely-used benchmark of pitching excellence even though wins are maybe the dumbest stat in baseball. Hell, you have the Pirates still in the hunt for a winning record – doesn’t sound like much, but given they haven’t finished above .500 in 20 years, it’s a lot more significant than it would be for most, non-awful franchises.

And on top of everything else, you’ve got a play that’ll be in the running for catch of the year. In the second inning today, the Mets’ Mike Baxter sent one deep to right field, putting enough of a charge in it that Pirates pitcher Kevin Correia turned his head to the side and shook it in disgust, sure he’d just surrendered a homer. And normally, he would have surrendered a homer. But what Pirates right fielder Travis Snider proceeded to do was not normal:

Somewhere, Hernandez’s ‘stache let out a deep sigh for the Mets’ misfortune… but deep down, it was impressed. But it wasn’t enough to save the Pirates – as of this writing, they’re down 6-3, and Dickey has 13 strikeouts. Clearly, the baseball gods, angered that Snider disobeyed their order that nothing go right for the Pirates, ever, struck back with a vengeance. At least they didn’t go after Andrew McCutchen.

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