The Washington Nationals were hitting seemingly everything out to the warning track in the fifth and sixth innings on Monday, chasing Lance Lynn with back-to-back home runs, and the first batter Joe Kelly saw, Danny Espinosa, had much the same experience. He hit a hard liner over center fielder Jon Jay's head—a sure double and a probable triple. And Jon Jay, sprinting toward the wall, leaped and caught it anyway, taking a face-full of padding with him.
You could try to put it in words in a million ways, though I'd probably wait to hear Mike Shannon tell it if you could. But these screenshots from Viva El Birdos regular and comment-collapser mojowo11 might explain it better:
So that's Jon Jay, making Busch Stadium erupt, making Joe Kelly really happy, and shutting down what could have been the Nationals' second rally in as many innings with a catch that made everybody think, pretty justifiably, "Jim Edmonds."
After a Carlos Beltran home run in the bottom of the inning the Cardinals lead the Nationals 8-3. Were it not for Jay's willingness to break his nose on a semi-regular basis, this could be a much different game.
UPDATE: It's been gif'd. Enjoy:
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