While the Los Angeles Dodgers ultimately came up short and suffered a disappointing series loss to the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium, the three-game matchup nevertheless featured plenty of memorable moments.
That particularly held true in Monday’s opener, when Mets third baseman Todd Frazier appeared to have robbed Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo with a spectacular diving catch into the stands to kickstart the bottom of the second.
Frazier was credited with recording the out but later admitted before Wednesday’s finale that the ball ended up leaving his glove during his dive, and thus, didn’t complete the catch.
When the ball fell out of his glove, Frazier revealed that he reacted quickly in picking up another baseball laying on the ground — giving umpire Mark Wegner the impression that he recorded a clean catch, via Mike Puma of The New York Post:
“It is Hollywood, so sometimes you have to act out a little bit,” Frazier said before the Mets played their series finale against the Dodgers. “Basically I caught the ball going in the stands and as I came down the ball came out. After seeing the replay there was another ball there and the first ball I saw I picked up and raised my hand up and [Wegner] called him out. It was just one of those things where I thought real quick, I had a split-second, and if there wasn’t a ball there I didn’t have a shot to get him out.”
.@SteveGelbs reveals the TRUTH behind the @FlavaFraz21 diving “catch” on Monday. Video don’t lie! pic.twitter.com/P4a1gBQIXe
— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) September 5, 2018
Frazier added that he made sure to throw the imposter ball back into the stands rather than give it to Mets ace Jacob deGrom, which could have potentially blown his cover:
“At the end of the day I had another decision to make, whether to give Jacob [deGrom] the ball or throw it in the stands and that was the only thing I could think of,” said Frazier, who tossed the ball to the crowd. “I saw somebody pointing to the right ball and said, ‘I am just going to have to play this off.’ I was flabbergasted I got away with it.”
In what proved to be a pitchers’ duel between deGrom and Dodgers southpaw Alex Wood, the free out was certainly appreciated by the Mets. New York wound up defeating Los Angeles, 4-2, following a go-ahead three-run home run by Brandon Nimmo in the ninth inning.
