The A’s made a late push with a home run in the bottom of the eighth to close the gap, but the defensive play that followed stole the spotlight. Marcus Semien roped a ball into the corner, looking like he was about to stretch it into a triple. The outfielder chased it down, played the wall perfectly, and launched a throw that looked impossible in real time. It reached the infield so fast that it caught everyone by surprise, even the camera angles made it look like there was no shot. But somehow, the tag was there.
Carlos Correa was in perfect position to field the high relay, despite it probably not even being meant for him. He flinched as the ball nearly passed over him, but still gunned it to third. Then Alex Bregman finished the job with a textbook tag. He let the throw get deep into his glove instead of reaching out, something that saved fractions of a second and made all the difference. Semien’s slide was late and lazy, made worse by a third-base coach who kept yelling for him to get down too late. The ump got the call right, even with the play being razor close in slow-motion.
The whole sequence shows the Astros’ defense working on instinct and precision. From reading the ricochet to the relay and the tag, it was clean execution. Correa shrugged it off, but plays like that don’t happen by luck.