The Rays’ Steven Souza might need to get his eyes checked after this play. He tried really hard to catch up with Kennys Vargas’ hit, but then he dove for the ball, which, uh, was nowhere near him:
Rays’ Steven Souza attempts diving catch, misses by 23 feet
Souza knew how badly he messed up, but he laughed it off afterward:
Statcast broke the news to him:
Souza had an explanation, though! According to Cut4, Souza misjudged how far the ball was because of the lights:
Souza told MLB.com’s Patrick Donnelly the truth behind the catch. “What really happened was the ball went in the lights immediately and I couldn’t find it. I just saw it in the gap, in that general direction, and I just hit the deck hoping it wasn’t going to hit me in the face,” the right fielder said. “I had no idea where it was, and when I looked up it was about 40 feet away from me.”
The only solution to combat the distance between Souza and the ball would have been to employ Space Jam logic:
The Rays came away with a 5-2 win over the Twins, thanks in part to Souza’s solo home run in the eighth inning.
