WASHINGTON — Richard Pederson was enjoying a beautiful summer night at the ballpark and flipping through his phone Monday when he heard the crack of a bat, looked up and saw a small white sphere hurtling toward the seats in section 142 that he occupied with his cousins, Hannah and Ben, and his uncle Don.
With Oneil Cruz, the Pirates’ Statcast darling of a prospect standing at home plate, Pederson didn’t have time to do much — just put his phone away, brace himself and try his best to pull in the laser beam of a solo homer as it whizzed toward the group’s seats in right-center field.
“As it was getting closer, I was thinking, ‘This can’t be happening,’ ” Pederson said. “I thought someone else would catch it, but then I realized, ‘Oh, (expletive). I’m gonna have to catch this.’ Tried with one hand. Obviously that didn’t go so well.”
