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At this point, Jose Lobaton is well known for his sneaky pop. The Washington Nationals’ (backup? starting?) catcher has two career postseason home runs, both in extremely clutch spots. His first, perhaps less well known to Nats fans, was a walk-off home run for the Tampa Bay Rays to win game three of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox, and to extend the series to a fourth game.
The other, which will live on in Nationals lore for a long time, came in Game 2 of the 2016 NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when Lobaton hit a ball into the wind that made its way into the visitors’ bullpen in left-center field, a three-run home run that proved to be the decisive blow of a 5-2 home victory for the Nats.
“The inning before, I was talking to the umpire and I was telling him the same, like you know, wow, that wind is really bad for hitters now,” Lobaton said this past October.
“When I hit the ball, I was like... I don’t know if it’s going to go out. And then when it went out, I was like, wow, that’s pretty cool.”
No matter how you play it, it seems like Lobaton has a tendency to hit clutch home runs in big moments... and it also seems like the clutch gene got carried down to his son, Jose Lobaton Jr., who the elder Lobaton posted a video of on Instagram.
In the video, Lobaton Jr. can be seen demolishing an outside pitch to left center field. However, the younger Lobaton’s hesitance in watching his home run proved to be fatal, as his dad tracked down the ball and managed to tag him out right before reaching home plate, a fitting end to one of the more dramatic plays in the history of (un)organized baseball.