DETROIT -- The Tigers’ clubhouse had a juggling kit lying around in it a few days ago, complete with miniature bean bags for practice. It was not part of Matt Vierling’s warmup routine, but the Tigers center fielder put his juggling skills to work in Detroit's 12-2 win on Tuesday night.
Former Tiger James McCann played enough at Comerica Park to know better than to expect a home run Tuesday from his 395-foot drive to the depths of right-center, even under the new dimensions. Thanks to Vierling’s highlight catch -- or catches, since he essentially snared it twice -- the D-backs catcher didn’t even get a hit, and Vierling got a highlight.
“Kinda crazy,” Vierling said. “Ball just kept going. He hit it pretty good.”
Both McCann and Vierling took off -- McCann around the bases, Vierling toward the fence -- as McCann’s drive off Tigers reliever Brant Hurter soared through the air. Vierling, the Tigers’ primary center fielder with Parker Meadows on the 10-day injured list with a right quad strain, covered 103 feet to track down the ball just in front of the fence as right fielder Wenceel Pérez yelled that he was about to hit it.
“In that gap, in this ballpark, you feel like you’re running and running and you’re never going to step, never going to hit the wall,” Vierling said. “Hearing Wenceel saying, ‘Wall, wall wall,’ it’s like, ‘OK, finally, I’m right there.’ That helped a lot.”
Vierling had the ball in his glove, but his momentum sent him crashing into the fence and sent the ball tumbling out of his glove. The ball never hit the fence and never got out of Vierling’s sight; he bounced off the fence and lunged for the ball before it could hit the ground.
“I thought I had it first when I crashed into [the fence],” Vierling said, “but I felt it pop out of my glove. And then it kind of came over the top of my head and I was able to see it. I don’t know if I saw it or I felt it come back over my head, but it was a little bit like slow motion. It wasn’t like a crazy ricochet; it was right there, which helped.”
McCann was speeding into third before he realized he was the first out of the fourth inning.
It was an outstanding play, and at least the third juggling highlight catch involving the Tigers this season. Red Sox outfielders Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela teamed up to take a home run away from Kerry Carpenter in May, with Abreu keeping the ball in the park and tipping it to Rafaela. A few weeks later, Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler tried to catch a pop-up in foul territory off the bat of White Sox hitter Joshua Palacios and instead tipped it to third baseman Zach McKinstry, who snared it for the out.