Smith’s HR – Cam Smith’s highlight catch at Globe Life Field—tracking Brandon Nimmo’s fly ball and reaching above the wall—helped swing momentum early in the Astros’ 5-1 win over the Rangers. The game featured first-inning homers from Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes, plus an
ARLINGTON — Cam Smith didn’t just make a play in right field on Thursday. He stole the kind of moment that usually turns into a scoreboard-changing homer, then watched it disappear over the warning track that wasn’t there for him.
Last spring, Smith switched from third base to right field and quickly became one of the game’s best defenders at that position during his rookie season. By the end of the first inning of the Astros’ 5-1 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field, he may have made the best catch of his young career.
Smith tracked a fly ball off the bat of Brandon Nimmo and timed his jump perfectly, reaching high above the wall to bring back what would have been a home run. The ball traveled a Statcast-estimated 356 feet. It would have left the yard in 18 ballparks. Globe Life Field wasn’t one of them.
The catch landed like payback. The Astros had seen Nimmo’s counterpart in Yordan Alvarez denied in a similar moment at Daikin Park on May 17. when Alvarez was robbed of a home run. Alvarez then hit five homers in the first three games of the series against the Rangers and entered Thursday tied for the AL lead with 20 home runs.
The Astros didn’t need to wait for their offense to show up. Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes delivered first-inning homers off Nathan Eovaldi. and Smith added an RBI single in the third to put the Astros ahead. 5-1. That lead carried them through because starter Spencer Arrighetti pitched with control. winning for the seventh time in eight starts this year.
Arrighetti limited the Rangers to one run—Josh Jung’s homer in the second—and just three hits in six innings.
Smith’s robbery was impressive. but it wasn’t even the biggest home run theft by an Astros outfielder in Arlington. That title goes to April 12. 2015. when across the street at Globe Life Park. a leaping George Springer pulled back what would have been a walk-off grand slam off the bat of the Rangers’ Leonys Martin.
Astros Rangers Cam Smith Globe Life Field Brandon Nimmo Jeremy Peña Isaac Paredes Spencer Arrighetti Nathan Eovaldi Josh Jung Yordan Alvarez
So wait Cam Smith robbed a homer but then the score was still 5-1? Baseball math is weird.
Globe Life Field “doesn’t count” for homers I guess? Like the ball just stopped being a homer because it landed in the right spot. That’s the only explanation.
This is probably just because that warning track is fake or something lol. I remember Alvarez getting robbed and then suddenly he starts blasting. Maybe the ballpark was cursed or blessed.
I can’t believe they’re talking about a catch like it’s the whole game, but also Peña and Paredes homered in the first so yeah momentum. Also why does it say 356 feet like that’s normal, my cat can jump like 356 inches.