Jose Siri Robs Grand Slam Then Hits One: Angels Outfielder Has Wildest Two-Day Stretch In MLB
Jose Siri did the most Jose Siri thing in baseball this week. He robbed a grand slam on Sunday and then hit a grand slam on Monday. Different teams. Same outfielder. One of the wildest 24-hour stretches in baseball this year.
Start with the catch. Siri is playing left at Tropicana Field with the bases loaded and two outs. Taylor Walls hooks a first-pitch fastball into the corner. The launch angle is 46 degrees. The hang time is 6.5 seconds. That ball is gone in most ballparks. At the Trop it is just enough to die against the wall.
Siri tracks it back. He times the jump. He reaches over the fence and pulls the grand slam back into the stands. That alone is a top-10-of-the-year highlight.
The detail that makes it a top-five highlight is what was behind the wall. There was a massive buffet spread set up for fans in the seating area. Catered. Plates. Food. Siri did the whole sequence without taking out the buffet. The Rays media team got the perfect angle on it. The replay shows the buffet sitting there untouched while Siri jogs back to the dugout with the baseball.
The Twitter caption wrote itself. Saved the runs and saved the catering.
That was Sunday. Monday gets even better.
Siri is back in the Angels lineup, this time against the Rockies in Anaheim. Bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the third. Kyle Freeland throws a 1-0 cutter that does not cut. Siri puts it in the seats in left for his own grand slam.
Robbed one. Hit one. Same player. Two games in a row.
This kind of thing does not really happen. Outfielders who can rob grand slams typically are not slugging cleanup. Sluggers who hit grand slams typically are not Gold Glove range defenders. Siri is one of the few guys in the sport who has both the legs and the bat to live in both worlds.
The Angels are not going to be in the playoff hunt the way they were dreaming this season, but Siri is the kind of player who keeps the team fun. He is high-energy. He throws his bat. He plays like everything matters even when the team is below .500.
The catch is going to get replayed on every MLB highlight package for the next month. The grand slam is going to get the same treatment. Together they are the kind of clip pack that gets Siri talked about as a potential All-Star candidate even on a sub-.500 team.
What is even more notable is that Siri did this against his old team. He came to the Angels from Tampa Bay. The first highlight was him robbing a grand slam from the Rays in their own building. There is no better way to remind your old front office what they let walk.
The Rays were not amused. The Rockies the next day were even less amused. Siri does not care. He went out and did it again.
Best two days any player has had this season.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
