LOS ANGELES — Jo Adell has made a habit of climbing walls to rob home runs. On Tuesday, the wall climbed back.
The Angels outfielder, who earlier this season took three potential homers away in a single game, found himself on the wrong end of a unusual stroke of bad luck during an 8-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies. In the fourth inning, with the Rockies leading 7-0, rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield hit a drive to deep right-center field where Adell was stationed.
The record does not need much decoration; it already does the talking.
The ball caromed off Adell's head and bounced over the fence for a home run. According to Statcast, the shot would've been a home run in exactly one of the 30 major league ballparks — Angel Stadium — and only because it struck Adell's skull rather than anywhere else on the field.
The incident drew inevitable comparisons to a similar play from May 1993, when José Canseco was the victim rather than the perpetrator. Canseco, then with the Texas Rangers, took a ball off his head on a solo homer by Carlos Martínez against Cleveland. The Rangers lost by one run.
A Hard Way to Help a Team
The key difference between the two moments ended up being practical rather than philosophical. Canseco's deflection contributed directly to the one-run margin. Adell's simply became a footnote in a lopsided defeat.
There was also the matter of aftermath. Canseco suffered an elbow injury three days later while pitching in a blowout loss to Boston and eventually required Tommy John surgery, which shifted him permanently to designated hitter duty. Adell, at least, walked away from this one with his arm still intact.
The physics of the incident were straightforward. A glove is soft and yields energy. A skull is hard and redirects it. That simple principle turned a routine out into an unlikely round-tripper, which is the kind of thing that happens when you position an outfielder directly between a batter and history.