BOSTON — With the bases loaded in the top of the third, Raimel Tapia hit a harmless fly ball, and Fenway Park exhaled. Then, chaos broke out.
Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran jogged in to make the catch, but then, just as you looked away from your television, the ball dropped 30 feet behind him. He’d lost the ball in the sky, and as Fenway Park collectively gasped, Tapia turned on the jets.
By the time the Red Sox got the ball back to the infield, Tapia was already racing around third and diving into home for an inside-the-park grand slam, holding a Superman pose as his teammates mobbed him.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. might have had the best read on the entire play. As he jogged home from third base, he looked behind to his teammates and cranked his arm like a third-base coach sending a runner. It seemed odd at the time, but it all made sense when the baseball fell near the warning track.
The wild moment was the Blue Jays’ first inside-the-park homer since Ezequiel Carrera on May 6, 2017. It’s also the first inside-the-park grand slam since the Nationals’ Michael A. Taylor pulled it off on Sept. 8, 2017, and just the second in Blue Jays history, stretching all the way back to June 2, 1989, when Junior Felix did it right here in Boston.
Tapia’s heroics put the Blue Jays up 10-0, capping a seven-run inning.