Acrobat? Spark? Slugger? Josh Palacios Wore Many Hats on Tuesday

PITTSBURGH — Perhaps overshadowed by a difficult loss for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves was Josh Palacios.

Palacios is a high-energy guy. Just talking to him in the clubhouse, you can feel it. And it translates to on the field. It certainly translated on Tuesday, and more than once.

Palacios made a highlight-reel play in right field to end the top of the fourth inning. He ranged far to his left, caught the ball, fell over the short fence next to the right-field foul line and stuck the landing.

Here’s that acrobatic catch from Josh Palacios pic.twitter.com/MT5j043qt8

— Danny Demilio (@Demilio22) August 9, 2023

“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t jump, just get to the wall, reach over. I saw the ball going up. I figured it would be over there. Just like (coach Tarik Brock) trains us, 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,” Palacios said on the web gem.

It was an impressive play. Heck, it was an impressive gymnastics routine. Palacios showed off some elite athleticism and body control to secure the catch and the landing on his feet.

The grab caught the attention of everyone at PNC Park including his teammates.

“Unbelievable,” Mitch Keller said on the catch. “He works extremely hard out there and he goes after everything. 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.”

The inning-ending catch happened in the midst of a 3-3 tie, and it didn’t take long for the Pirates to reclaim the lead after seeing what Palacios did.

Immediately after the catch, Alfonso Rivas led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a go-ahead, solo home run to center field.

As if that catch wasn’t enough, for an encore, Palacios led off the top of the fifth inning with a solo home run.

Palacios’ energy must have been felt yet again. His homer was the front-end of back-to-back long balls with fellow outfielder Bryan Reynolds.

Interestingly enough, the duo became the first Pirates’ teammates with back-to-back homers since… Josh Palacios and Bryan Reynolds did it on Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.

Even with what is sure to wind up Sports Center Top 10 Plays to go along with his fourth-career homer,  it’ll always be team first for Palacios.

“I’d dump the home run and the catch for the win, definitely,” he said. “The boys battled hard. They did what they had to do. Tough plays. A couple plays didn’t go our way. Definitely would like to win, but you have to keep pushing. 162 games, you have to keep going.”

The Pirates may have come up short, but Palacios still earned a little bit of time in the limelight for his efforts.