New angle makes Victor Robles' game-saving Mariners catch look superhuman

Before Saturday, the signature moment of Victor Robles' 2025 season was one he would like to forget. When he went flying into foul territory for a catch in San Francisco back in April, he caught the ball but also suffered a fractured shoulder that kept him on the sidelines for five months.

Well, he has a new signature moment now, and everyone has probably already seen it.

There he was on Saturday night in right field at Daikin Park, coming out of nowhere to make a diving catch on a sinking liner by Carlos Correa with one out in the ninth inning. All he had to do then was lob the ball toward second base to double off Jake Meyers to secure a 6-4 win that clinched the game, the season series, and possibly the AL West title for the Seattle Mariners over the Houston Astros.

Yet the Root Sports broadcast didn't actually have the best angle of Robles' catch. For that, you need to get a load of the bird's-eye view courtesy of Daniel Kramer of MLB.com:

True, the players look like little specks here. But you can really get a sense of the closing speed when watching the speck that is Robles in right field. Likewise, the speck that is Meyers is still yards from third base when the ball finds Robles' glove. It's like watching a hapless seal swim right into the gaping maw of a great white shark.

Victor Robles' game-ending catch was as mind-blowing as Mariners fans think

As of this writing, the catch probability of Robles' catch is not publicly available. But we do know that he had to push it to the proverbial limit with his speed, as the 28.4 feet-per-second he reached is faster than his average sprint of 28.0 feet-per-second.

The situation could have ended in disaster for the Mariners. There was a split second when Robles and Julio Rodríguez looked like they were on a collision course, which makes it impossible not to imagine an alternate scenario in which they both get hurt and Correa's ball goes for a game-tying or even game-winning knock.

All's well that ends well, of course, and Julio's up-close look at Robles' superhuman moment produced one of the quotes of the year for the Mariners.

"He's going to live in my head for the rest of my life, probably — that picture of him just flying and catching that ball,” said the three-time All-Star, per Kramer.

The catch resulted in a 19 percent swing in win probability for the Mariners, and it may prove to be the moment that effectively ended the AL West race. The Mariners are 2.0 games up on the Astros with a crucial tiebreaker in hand. With seven games left, FanGraphs gives them a 91.5 percent chance of finishing the job.

It's clear from watching the Mariners right now that they badly want the club's first division title in 24 years. And judging from last night, perhaps nobody wants it as bad as Robles.