Boston Red Sox’ Alex Cora on catch: ‘I’ve never seen anything like that’

TORONTO — One thought came to manager Alex Cora‘s mind when Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho fell down on the warning track going after Jarren Duran’s 396-foot fly ball in the fourth inning Tuesday.

“Inside-the-park (home run). That’s my thought,” Cora said before Boston’s game against the Blue Jays on Wednesday. “And then that happened.”

Varsho somehow made the catch while on the ground after spotting the ball in the final seconds.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Cora said.

Varsho won a Gold Glove last year, posting 16 defensive runs in 672 innings in center field and 12 defensive runs saved in 404 ⅓ innings in left field.

“Just a good athlete,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best, if not the best defenders in the outfield. And just a reaction. In the words of Kristian Campbell, that was crazy.”

Alex Bregman called it one of the best catches he’s ever seen. He thought it would be a triple for the speedy Duran.

“I just stuck my glove out and somehow it went in,” Varsho told reporters covering the Blue Jays, including MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “It was probably a really high percent probability of a catch and I made it look really hard.”

Matheson noted it had a 95% catch probability — so if Varsho didn’t fall down, it would have been a routine catch.

“I said a profanity word,” Varsho also told reporters. “But then I was like, ‘OK, where’s the ball?’”

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