Granderson's wall-crashing, game-saving catch keeps NL Wild Card Game scoreless
The scoreless tie would have been broken had Granderson not run the ball down
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
The 2016 NL Wild Card Game offered a premium pitching matchup, and boy has it delivered. Noah Syndergaard and Madison Bumgarner traded zeroes through the first five innings, and never fell into any real danger.
The scoreless tie was nearly broken in the sixth inning. Denard Span poked a single back up the middle -- it was the Giants first hit of the game -- then Brandon Belt clobbered a long fly ball to center field that appeared to have extra bases written all over it.
The ball never found grass. Mets center fielder Curtis Granderson ran Belt's line drive down, then crashed into the wall. Here are some images:
WEB.
— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) October 6, 2016
GEM.@cgrand3 with a potential game-saver for the #Mets, crashing into the wall to make the catch.
WOW.#WildCardpic.twitter.com/BJazRQCzwk
You can see video of the play right here.
Span had stolen second earlier in Belt's at-bat, and with two outs in the inning, he was going to score easily had Granderson not come down with that baseball. Belt could have wound up at third base too.
In a game with two elite starters where every run is crucial to winning the NL Wild Card Game, Granderson's catch was a true game-saver.
