ANAHEIM -- Still young in his big league career, Athletics rookie center fielder Denzel Clarke has a routine designed to familiarize himself with each new ballpark he plays in.
Before the first game of each road series, Clarke goes to the outfield during batting practice and works on timing his steps from the warning track to the wall. This helps calculate the distance of space available whenever he needs to chase down a deep drive. Still, he does not truly get a sense for what he’s working with until he gets his first ball hit his way.
“I always say the first play in my first time playing a new ballpark is going to break the ice,” Clarke said. “Crazy play to break the ice.”
That icebreaker came in the form of a Statcast-projected 398-foot drive hit by Nolan Schanuel in the first inning of Monday night’s 7-4 loss to the Angels. Clarke, the Athletics’ No. 6 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, climbed the wall in left-center field at Angel Stadium and delivered yet another catch for the ages as he robbed Schanuel of a solo home run.
“I just timed it up,” Clarke said. “Found my distance between the wall and just did what the ball told me to do. Just go up there and get it.”
It was reminiscent of Clarke’s phenomenal home run robbery a couple of weeks ago, when he returned to his hometown of Toronto for the first time as a big leaguer and scaled the center-field wall at Rogers Centre to take one away from Alejandro Kirk with a leaping grab.
This one might have been better as Spider-Man struck again. Clarke got an excellent read on the ball off the bat and tracked it all the way to the warning track. He then perfectly timed a leap just a couple of feet before the wall and grabbed the top of the wall with his right hand for support while the upper half of his body extended completely over the fence.
“That play was pretty phenomenal,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I asked our bench coach Darren Bush, ‘If he had fallen over the fence, how would they have ruled that?’ That’s about as far over a fence you can get without going over and making a play. We talk about his range. The package is instinct, reaction and speed. He’s got it all.”
The expressions on the field said it all. A’s pitcher Grant Holman stood on the mound with both hands over his head. Schanuel, who was halfway to second base, gazed out to the outfield with a look of disbelief. Even Clarke, who has remained somewhat stoic following his previous outstanding catches, couldn’t help but let out a huge roar as he jumped off the wall and back onto the field.
“I’ve played with Denzel for a few years now, dating back to the Minor Leagues,” Holman said. “I’ve seen him do stuff out there that you just don’t see. Schanuel hit that ball, and I’m thinking, ‘All right, with Denzel, he’s got a chance to catch anything.’
“Then he makes that catch. I’ve never been on the mound and not known what emotion to show. But I was stunned. … The guy makes plays every day that continue to blow our minds.”
Schanuel admittedly thought he had his fourth home run of the season.
“Off the bat, I felt like I got it,” Schanuel said. “Then I see him come back, go down the wall, see the ball disappear, and then come back up and him celebrating with the ball in his glove. My heart dropped. He's a crazy athlete. … He's special. Really good fielder, and he's got a bright future.”
Clarke is less than three weeks into his Major League career, but he might already have wrapped up the top three catches of any player during the 2025 season. At this rate, the Electric Play of the Week presented by Chevrolet may soon be renamed after Clarke.
He has won the award each of the past two weeks, first for the home run robbery in Toronto and last week for a play in which he ran full speed and crashed into the fence in left-center at Sutter Health Park for a remarkable catch.
The highlight reel of defensive gems by Clarke is an extensive one, going back to his Minor League career. In his mind, Monday’s catch tops them all.
“I’m always very tentative to say this was the best one,” Clarke said. “But I think this is probably the best one I’ve ever made.”