"I told him ‘Don’t jump at the wall'" - Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia jokes about Julio Rodriguez almost snagging his home run ball

During the fourth inning on Wednesday, Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers stepped up for his second at-bat of the game. Already leading his club with six home runs, it hardly came as a surprise when the Cuban pummeled a 3-1 delivery deep to center field at Globe Life Park.

Thousands of fans watched the ball sail high and deep to center. Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez, who had a beat on it, tracked the ball all the way to the center field wall before making a heroic leap.

"Adolis García's drive to center keeps us all in suspense ..." - MLB

Although it originally appeared as though Rodriguez caught the ball, the muted response from the Seattle Mariners Gold Glover surprised observers. It was not long before it became clear that the ball had cleared the wall. Further replays showed that the ball bounced in and out of Rodriguez' glove before clearing the wall.

The Texas Rangers would go on to win the game by a 5-1 margin. After the affair, Adolis Garcia had some good-natured trash talk ready. According to Rangers writer Kennedi Landry, Garcia had apparently told Rodriguez ‘Don’t jump at the wall', as he had seen the Mariners star rob hitters in this fashion before.

"Adolis García joked postgame, per @kennlandry: "I told him ‘Don’t jump at the wall.' Yeah, I thought he caught it. I was just standing at first base. I think [he was slow-playing it on purpose]. I saw he did that last year with Tatis."" - Daniel Kramer

Garcia was ostensibly referencing an incident last August that saw Rodriguez rob a home run off of San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. in Seattle. However, unlike Garcia's home run, Rodriguez had caught the ball, and calmly strutted with the sphere hidden in his glove before revealing it to the crowd.

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Julio Rodriguez stunt had Adolis Garcia's teammates fooled

A center fielder of Gold Glove calibre, Julio Rodriguez's aptitude in the outfield is beyond reproach. However, that does not stop the 23-year-old from having a bit of fun. In response to the sequence, Garcia's Rangers teammate Evan Carter claimed:

“I’ve seen Julio do that deke before where he acts like he didn’t catch it, so I didn’t know what was going on.”

Thankfully for Adolis Garcia and company, the ball was gone, and the win was enough to propel the Rangers into the top spot in their division, the AL West.