Los Angeles Angels right fielder Jo Adell made headlines in April when he robbed three home runs in one game. On Tuesday night at Angel Stadium, he gave one back.
In a play he would probably like to forget, Adell raced toward the right-field wall to track down a fly ball off TJ Rumfield's bat in the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies.
Adell appeared to get under the ball for an easy out, but in a flashback to the infamous Jose Canseco play from May 1993, the ball nicked off his glove, then bounced off his head and over the fence for a solo home run.
The unfortunate play gave the Rockies an 8-0 lead. Adell shook it off and appeared to be OK aside from being a little embarrassed.
Colorado went on to win 8-2.
"It's one of those things where how it happened looks crazy," said Adell, who went 0-for-4 at the plate with two strikeouts. "It looks like I've never played in the field before, which is disappointing, because it's beyond the truth, but it is what it is. I'm the only one that really knows what happened. I was out there, and it happened to me, so it is what it is. I've got to just keep going, and as a team, we've got to keep going."
The play bore an eerie resemblance to Canseco's defensive blunder from 33 years ago, which happened when he was a member of the Texas Rangers and also occurred at the right-field wall. The Rangers lost that game 7-6 to Cleveland.
Adell actually made a similar outfield gaffe against the Rangers on Aug. 9, 2020, his rookie season, when a fly ball bounced off his glove -- but not his head -- and went over the fence. The play did not go down as a homer, however; instead, Adell was charged with a rare four-base error.
Still, Adell seemed an unlikely candidate to mimic Canseco's blooper. A Gold Glove finalist in 2024, he lit up social media when he made three homer-robbing catches on April 5, the last a spectacular leaping grab while crashing into the seats near the right-field foul pole in the ninth inning of a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
"He robbed three homers in one night this year, so it's baseball, and it's a crazy game," said Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez, who took the loss after allowing eight runs in 3⅔ innings. "Things happen. Obviously, he didn't do that on purpose. All you can do is really just move on."
Added Angels manager Kurt Suzuki: "Jo's made great strides defensively from when I played with him. And obviously, he had the night he robbed three home runs. So I look back at the strides that he's made defensively. It was a tough play tonight, but at the same time, the strides that he's made defensively have been great."