Erick Aybar made possibly the defensive play of the night Friday when he made a slick barehanded play to rob Luis Sardinas of a hit.
Sardinas was leading off the top of the seventh and hit a slow grounder to short. Sardinas is pretty speedy, so Aybar had to charge the ball and get rid of it quickly for a chance to get the out. Even though the ball wasn’t hit too hard, it was still really deep and moving a lot faster than a bunt when Aybar fielded it, making his barehanded grab extremely impressive. When you couple that with his strong throw, it’s hard not to love that web gem.
The defensive metrics generally don’t rate Aybar too favorably, but I feel like he’s a very strong fielder with a lot of range. It’s just that he doesn’t make great plays like this on a daily basis … nobody can.
