Pirates OF Josh Palacios delivers 'unbelievable' highlights with circus catch, homer

Josh Palacios went upside down and all around, providing a pair of highlight plays by making a circus catch and rounding the bases for a home run that should have propelled the Pittsburgh Pirates to victory.

Instead, Palacios only could stand at his locker and shake his head after an 8-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night at PNC Park, wishing he could make a swap.

“I’d dump the home run and the catch for the win,” Palacios said. “Definitely.”

Palacios made a momentum-changing play in the third inning, with the score tied 3-3. The Braves had Michael Harris on third base with two outs when Palacios made a highlight-worthy cartwheel catch.

Josh Palacios with an unbelievable catch!! pic.twitter.com/H9UFD1VcF0

— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) August 9, 2023

Palacios tracked Austin Riley’s fly ball to the short wall in foul territory, leaning over the wall to snare the ball before going head over heels. He grabbed the railing, however, and landed on his feet. Palacios then hopped back over the wall, smiling as he held his glove high to show he had caught the ball.

Going upside down to make a play is nothing new for Palacios, who said he’s done it “a lot — too many times.”

“My mother gets mad at me, but I’d run through a wall for these guys and they’d run through a wall for me,” Palacios said. “I don’t even think twice about it.”

What Palacios did think twice about as he chased the ball was the teachings of outfield/first base coach Tarrik Brock to get to the wall quickly to be positioned for the catch.

Palacios reminded himself about dropping a ball hit by Milwaukee’s William Contreras last month, when Palacios was thrown off after jumping at the wall and the ball bounced out of his glove.

“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t jump. Just get to the wall, reach over,’ ” Palacios said. “I saw the ball going up. I figured it would be over there. … I got to the wall as fast as possible, made my read from there, reached over and caught it. The rest was just a lot of fun with the boys.”

Pirates starter Mitch Keller was pumped about the play, which ended the top of the inning and prevented the go-ahead run from scoring. Keller called it an “unbelievable” catch by Palacios.

“He works extremely hard out there, and he goes after everything,” Keller said. “He thinks he can catch everything and, I mean, I think he’s shown he can. That was pretty impressive, pretty damn good play out there. Huge play for the situation we were in there.”

A Home Run and a great catch. Robby caught up with Josh Palacios as he came into the dugout in the 6th. pic.twitter.com/XxUwuxHvtA

— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) August 9, 2023

Solo HR by OF Josh Palacios @Pirates. His 4th Home Run in the majors this year#LetsGoBucs    pic.twitter.com/Pw8WzWWQol

— Pittsburgh Pirates Player Development Report (@PGHplayerDev) August 9, 2023

After Alfonso Rivas gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead with a solo home run to start the fourth, Palacios provided a spark by smacking a Yonny Chirinos 0-1 splitter 388 feet to right field for a leadoff home run in the fifth.

It was the fourth homer of the season for Palacios but his third in the past nine games, including one in the 10th inning for a 6-4 walk-off win over the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30 — his 28th birthday. Bryan Reynolds followed with a 426-foot blast to center, giving the Pirates their 10th back-to-back homers for the season, their most since 2003.

Between the circus catch and the homer, Palacios’ performance caught the attention of Pirates manager Derek Shelton.

“The catch was a great catch — got to the wall, leaned over and made a really nice play,” Shelton said, “and had good swings throughout the whole game.”