C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

ST. LOUIS — Billy Hamilton had two firsts on Friday night — the first time he’s robbed a home run and the first time he’s gotten a standing ovation from an opposing team’s fans.

Both happened in the sixth inning of Friday’s 14-3 loss when Matt Carpenter hit a ball deep to center field off of Reds reliever Dan Straily. Hamilton used the wall in center field at Busch Stadium to elevate himself and catch Carpenter’s ball that was going to land in the berm.

“That’d have to be No. 1 for me, that’s the first time I’ve actually robbed a home run and brought it back,” Hamilton said of his catch. “That’s a big night for me, and a lot of fun night — the game didn’t go as well as planned, but for me, that catch was pretty good for me.”

For a second, Straily put his head down fearing he’d allowed a home run because Hamilton didn’t show the ball to him immediately. Hamilton did finally show the ball to left fielder Scott Schebler, Straily and the umpires and the Reds reliever was able to smile, knowing he’d been saved a run.

A day later, Straily walked behind a group of reporters talking to Hamilton and joked, “Thanks, Billy.”

What happened next surprised Hamilton — Cardinals fans stood and cheered him. It helped that their team was up 7-3, but still it was surprising that not only did they cheer him after he robbed the homer, they did again after the replay.

“St. Louis fans really appreciate baseball, they know baseball,” Hamilton said. “If I was in Chicago and caught that, they’d have booed the mess out of me, but here they showed me a bunch of love. … It’s a good thing to be playing in front of people who know baseball and aren’t just here to criticize players and how they play.”

Hamilton very nearly had two homer-robbing catches. In the first inning, he was maybe a foot from taking away Matt Holliday’s three-run home run off of Tim Melville. Hamilton climbed the wall, but the ball was just out of his reach.

“The first one I thought it was going to still be in the park, the one Holliday hit, I thought that ball was not a routine fly ball, but one you could catch at the wall, and it kept on carrying,” Hamilton said. “The one Carpenter hit, I knew it was gone, but I knew if I had a chance I’d make the play, it was good.”

Hamilton didn’t start playing center field until 2013, his last year in the minors, so he had never even robbed a homer in the minors.

In his time in Cincinnati, he’s made more than his fair share of great catches, but robbing a homer, he said, was the best.

“The Ryan Braun one (in 2014), the one I got the concussion on my head, I’d say that one was a good catch, but I don’t think it was one you had to go to the fence and catch it, it’s one I caught before it got to the fence,” Hamilton said. “This is the best one I’ve done and first time robbing a home run. It was pretty fun.”

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