Glove-Aided Dinger Helps Red Sox Stave Off Elimination

The Red Sox-Astros series was looking like a real turd heading into Game 3, with the Astros having outscored the Red Sox 16-4 in a pair of lopsided games in Houston. The Red Sox responded Sunday afternoon at Fenway with some overdue offense and managed to push the series to a Game 4.

Houston got to Red Sox starter Doug Fister in the first inning, plating three runs on three hits, including a laser of a dinger to center field. This put the Red Sox potentially in line for a really unfortunate piece of history:

An RBI single from Hanley Ramirez—who was outstanding in this one—in the third inning, followed by a two-run dinger from Rafael Devers, put the Sox on top, and saved them from that particular slice of the record books. The game really cracked open, though, in the seventh inning, when Astros pitchers Lance McCullers and Chris Devenski faced five consecutive Sox hitters to open the inning without recording an out, punctuated by a bases-loaded Ramirez two-run double to give Boston some breathing room.

Two batters later, with Joe Musgrove on the mound, Jackie Bradley Jr. skied a ball to right field, where Pesky’s Pole and the odd curvature of Fenway’s right field were certain to come into play. And they did! Although you are not likely to see them come into play in this exact way again in your lifetime:

Reddick had his own shot to right field in the second inning snagged at the wall by Mookie Betts, potentially stealing a three-run dinger that would’ve made the game 6-0 early, all but dooming the Red Sox. This may not quite be Mikie Mahtook’s wonderful, epic, slapped dinger from earlier this season, but it’s still a real treat—I’m pretty sure that’s not a homer without Reddick shoveling it over the wall! I submit that the glove-aided dinger is somewhere near the top of an honest ranking of dingers. There should be no fewer than 10 of these per season.