During the course of a grueling 162-game regular season, there are defensive plays – web gems, if you will – that can be the push a team needs to make it into the postseason. On Tuesday night, 33-year-old Dodgers left fielder AJ Pollock made such a defensive play against the San Diego Padres in front of a sold out Petco Park crowd of 41,676.

With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Dodgers starting left-hander Julio Urías delivered an 83.1-MPH hanging curveball that Padres third baseman Manny Machado absolutely crushed. At first look, it appeared that Machado had just turned a (then) 1-0 Dodgers lead into a 2-1 ballgame with his 23rd home run of the season.

It was not Machado’s 23rd home run of the season.

Instead, Pollock made a spectacular leaping over-the-wall catch to rob the former Dodger of a two-run home run (and a Padres fan of a souvenir).

“I was thinking of the last time I tried to rob a homer and embarrassed myself,” Pollock said postgame. “I kinda saw that it was carrying a little bit and I didn’t want to jump late like I did last time and run into the wall. The timing was right and I was able to make the grab.”

That ‘last time’ was this past Sunday when the Hebron, CT native and first-round draft pick in 2009 by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of Notre Dame did not attempted to leap for a (very) catchable ball off the bat of New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso that went for a two-run home run at Dodger Stadium in the eventual 7-2 Mets win.

But wait … there’s more!

With one out in the top of the seventh inning and the score still 1-0, Pollock lined a bases loaded single to right to give the Dodger a (then) 3-0 lead in the eventual 5-2 Dodgers win.

“I think since the break, he’s played as good a baseball as anybody,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Pollock postgame. “He’s playing really good defense, being dynamic on the bases. He’s slugging, but can downshift and get a base hit when we need it. He has just been an overall really good player.”

Really good indeed. Pollock is currently hitting .307, which would rank fourth in MLB if he had enough plate appearances.

The only downside to Tuesday’s Dodgers win is that the NL West-leading San Francisco also won, pounding those aforementioned Mets by a score of 8-0 at Citi Field to maintain their current 2.5-game lead over the Dodgers with 36 games remaining in the 2021 regular season. The Dodgers and Giants will square off against one another for the final time in the regular season at Oracle Park September 3-5.

Keep having ‘a game’, AJ. Your teammates – and Dodger fans – need it.

Play Ball!

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