The Padres' Will Venable Made One Of The Best Catches Of The Season

Bear with our hyperbole on this one. Because there was what Will Venable did—sprinting back toward the wall and laying out to make a backhanded catch over his head, à la Jim Edmonds—and there was the situation in which he did it.

Tie game, two outs, bottom of the 12th. The Giants had Brandon Belt on second. Put simply, if Venable didn't get to this ball hit by Juan Perez, the Padres lose. But he got to it all right, even though it looked like he had no chance. San Diego wound up scoring twice in the top of the 13th, and Huston Street locked down the bottom of the inning to finish it off.

It's a cliché to say every game matters, even in a 162-game season. And there are still more than three months to go. But the NL West has four teams within 1.5 games of first place, with the Padres now sitting in third, just .5 games in front of the Giants. This game mattered. This spectacular catch did, too.