Cleveland Indians center fielder Austin Jackson earned a standing ovation from many Boston Red Sox fans on Tuesday night when he made a catch that will go down as one of the best in Fenway Park history.
With the Indians leading 7-5, Hanley Ramírez stepped up to the plate for the Red Sox in the bottom of the fifth and hit a fly ball to deep center.
Jackson sprinted to the warning track by the Red Sox bullpen and flipped over the outfield wall to rob Ramírez of the leadoff homer.
"With that particular one, you got back and tried to get to the fence first and when I jumped and caught it I realized I was about to take a tumble on the other side and luckily I was able to grab the fence a little bit and flipped over," Jackson said after the game.
Jackson signed to play college basketball at Georgia Tech under coach Paul Hewitt and baseball under coach Danny Hall in 2004. However, the 6-foot-1 point guard from Denton, Texas chose to pursue professional baseball after he was selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft and received an $800,000 signing bonus.
Here’s a slower clip of that catch from the outfield wall angle.
"I'm glad I was able to hold on to it,” Jackson said. “Especially going over like that, I could easily dropped it but I was able to hold onto it and get that out."
The Red Sox went on to win Tuesday’s game 12-10 after scoring four runs in the sixth inning and three in the ninth. The Red Sox and Indians play the final game in the three-game Fenway Park series at 7:08 p.m. on Wednesday night.
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