What looked like a home run robbery was returned, and a frame that appeared over instead began spiraling.
With two outs in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Tigers in The Bronx, Kerry Carpenter lifted a Cam Schlittler cutter and sent it to deep center.
Spencer Jones had a bead on it, reached the wall, jumped and used his 6-foot-7 stature to bring his glove high above the wall’s height.
The ball bounced into the glove, and Yankee Stadium cheered — before realizing that as Jones hit the wall, the ball had bounced out of his glove and into the home bullpen for a home run.
Jones appeared in disbelief that he did not catch the ball. What happened next was probably more unbelievable.
Schlittler was not out of the inning and then struggled to get out of the inning. The next batter, Riley Greene, demolished a homer into the second deck in right field.
Prior to Tuesday, Schlittler — the front-runner for AL Cy Young — had never allowed more than one home run in an inning. In this one, he surrendered three.
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Colt Keith stepped up and worked a six-pitch at-bat that ended with a single, then Spencer Torkelson crushed the 10th pitch he saw for a deep, two-run homer to left, the ball flying on a hot night at the Stadium.
Ryan Yarbrough began warming up before Schlittler retired Zach McKinstry to conclude a four-run, 36-pitch top of the first.
Twenty-seven of those pitches were thrown after Jones leapt and could not bring back the home run or end the frame.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
