Jo Adell robs 3 home runs as Angels steal win away from Seattle Mariners

ANAHEIM, Calif. — They felt like home runs off the bat. They looked like homers as they headed to the right-field fence.

They weren’t home runs because of the ridiculous athleticism, effort and execution of Angels right fielder Jo Adell.

The Angels’ former top prospect, who turns 27 next week, is built like a linebacker. It was his power bat at the plate that put him in the top-prospect lists and his tendency to swing and miss that hasn’t allowed him to reach his full potential.

But on Saturday night at Angels Stadium, he glove-handedly destroyed the Mariners’ victory hopes, helping hold Seattle scoreless on the night with three, yes, three homer-robbing catches and leading the Angels to a 1-0 victory.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy rob two homers in one game, much less three,” Cal Raleigh said. “Baseball can amaze you night in and night out. You can see something you’ve never seen before. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Some outfielders can play an entire career and maybe rob one home run. Adell did it to Raleigh in the first inning. He stole one from Josh Naylor in the eighth inning. But it was his catch in the ninth, saving the best for last, that will be in the running for catch of the year given its difficulty and the circumstances surrounding the moment.

With the Mariners trailing 1-0 in the top of the ninth, J.P. Crawford led off the inning looking to find a way to help his team scratch out a run. He worked a 2-1 count against Angels’ closer Jordan Romano. Seeing a second slider in a row from Romano, Crawford hammered a high fly ball to the right-field corner. The fence in that area is only about 4-feet high. Given how hard he hit it and the location it was headed, it seemed like Crawford had tied the game. He thought so too as he jogged down the first-base line watching it go out.

The ball did go over the fence, but its path was interrupted by Adell’s glove. Running at full sprint and then slowing down just enough to measure his leap, Adell jumped up and toward the fence, knowing he would likely go over it and into the crowd. Caution and safety be damned, he caught the ball in mid-flight, hit the top of the wall with his rear end and tumbled into the stands.

After a few seconds, he emerged from the wall, holding the ball in his glove as the sellout crowd 44,084 turned to bedlam.

“You just get there, and it’s just decision making,” Adell said. “Step one is getting to the spot. The ball was hit high enough where I could get there. It kind of looked similar to the ball yesterday (Cole Young’s triple). But my positioning was a little bit better. I got there, and was able to fall over and end up in somebody’s lap. I don’t know who, but it was a softer landing than I thought it would be. It’s kind of crazy.”

Crawford stood behind first base with his hands on his helmet in disbelief. His face was a mixture of anger and awe.

The Mariners asked for a replay review, hoping that there was some way it might be ruled a homer. It wasn’t. As the umpires in New York watched replays, the Angels video screen replayed multiple angles of the catch in slow motion, each one seemingly making it more impressive.

“It’s frustrating when you feel like you put a good swing on a ball like that and drive it like our guys did and you don’t end up with anything to show for it,” manager Dan Wilson said. “I think that the positive there is that guys are starting to swing the bat, and it’s starting to come around.”

Raleigh thought he had his first homer of the season when he lifted a deep fly ball to right field off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz. The ball came off his bat 105 mph and seemed to be carrying over the 8-foot wall in right field. But Adell was tracking it off the bat, got to the wall and timed his leap perfectly, snaring the supposed solo homer.

“I thought there was a chance,” Raleigh said. “But you never know.”

In the eighth inning, Naylor hit a deep drive to right field that looked to be out. Adell had the same buildup as he did for Raleigh’s shot and made almost the same catch.

Adell erased three runs in a game where his team scored one.

“Obviously, you look at the three balls that he caught,” Raleigh said. “But at the same time, we’ve gotta do a better job at the little things, getting guys over, executing with runners in scoring position. That’s what kind of hurt us tonight.”

Indeed, the Mariners finished the game 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on base.

The Mariners wasted another outstanding start from Emerson Hancock. The right-hander tossed 6 2/3 innings allowing one run on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

The one run allowed came immediately in what was hectic first inning for Hancock. The fourth pitch of his outing — a 96-mph fastball on 2-1 count — was turned into a leadoff homer by Zach Neto.

It looked like the Angels might tack on more when Nolan Schanuel doubled to left-center and Jorge Soler sneaked a single through the right side to put runners on the corners with one out. But Hancock came back to strike out Yoan Moncada for the second out of the inning.

The third out, well, that was a little unusual. Facing the right-handed hitting Adell, Hancock uncorked a wayward sweeper into the other batter’s box. Raleigh couldn’t glove it.  The ball ricocheted off the backstop and started rolling back as a hustling Raleigh slid on his knees to grab it, spun and fired back toward home plate as he fell toward the ground.

“It’s kind of instinctual,” Raleigh said. “You can try to work on it as much as you can, but it’s kind of a hard thing. I’ve always, always been able to throw from different arm angles. It’s what helped me on that play.”

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The throw was perfect. It hit Hancock’s glove right in front of the plate for an easy tag on Schanuel to end the inning.

“The play was made with Cal’s throw,” Hancock said. “There was no having to move. There’s no having to pick it. I knew I wanted to kind of get low, just to kind of be able to get the tag on him. And I never moved my glove. Big time play from Cal.”

Given a chance to relax and reset after the wild top of the first, Hancock settled in worked the next 5 2/3 inning scoreless before giving way to Eduard Bazardo.

Kochanowicz was almost as good, pitching 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. It was just the second time in his career he tallied seven or more strikeouts in the game.

In his first start of the season, Kochanowicz made it just four innings against the Astros, allowing six runs (five earned) on four hits with five walks and three strikeouts. In three previous starts vs. Seattle, he posted an 0-2 record with an 8.03 ERA. He pitched a combined 12 1/3 innings, allowing 12 runs (11 earned) on 20 hits with five walks and 11 strikeouts while giving up three homers.

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