NEW YORK — As Ben Rice’s eighth-inning grand slam soared high into the air and toward the New York Yankees’ bullpen, bullpen catcher Rainiero Coa camped directly under it. And then he did what any sane person would do.
Rather than catching it, he let the baseball crash off the face mask of his catcher’s helmet, creating a moment that thrilled the pitchers and coaches in the bullpen during a 9-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
It went viral, with one video post on X of the moment racking up 1.1 million views and nearly 10,000 “likes” as of Wednesday night.
Yankees bullpen catcher is a legend for this pic.twitter.com/VkifmuvFXX
— Will Sommers (@WillSommers2) September 30, 2026
Although it may have looked like a spur-of-the-moment decision, it was actually something Coa had been thinking about for a while.
“I had been talking about it for the last two weeks of the season,” Coa told The Athletic before Game 2 on Wednesday.
“Like, ‘Hey, if I get a chance, I’m going to wear one off my chest in the bullpen, or off my mask.’ But it didn’t happen.”
Then Victor Roldan, the Yankees’ director of international operations, reminded Coa of his mission before Tuesday’s game.
“But be careful with your neck,” Roldan told him.
When Rice stepped to the plate with two outs, the bases loaded and the Yankees ahead 5-0, Coa had been behind the plate in the bullpen warming up reliever John Schreiber. But it had already been a long inning, and Schreiber took a break so he didn’t tire himself out.
As the pair lingered in the bullpen, Rice hammered one off Boston reliever Bryan Bello — a no-doubter that traveled high into the cool night sky.
Coa finally had his chance.
“I heard the crowd,” he said, “and I saw the ball. I got behind the ball and I went with my mask, and it went perfectly.”
The ball landed right in front of Coa, leaving a white mark on the blue-painted metal on his face mask.
He picked it up and put it in his pocket, later giving it to Rice.
Immediately after it happened, the pitchers sitting in the room behind the Yankees’ bullpen went nuts.
“The guys were so excited,” Coa said. “It was like I was the one who hit the homer. They were shaking hands with me, like, ‘Man, that was crazy! Did that hurt?’ It didn’t hurt at all because I was kind of stepping back and I absorbed it.”
“He’s a showman,” bullpen coach Preston Claiborne said. “It was good for the boys.”
Claiborne said he had no idea of Coa’s plan, and that it reminded him of former Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle, who used to let fly balls hit him in the chest during batting practice.
Yankees bullpen catcher Rainiero Coa talks with starter Will Warren before a game in May. (New York Yankees / Getty Images)
Coa said that it led to a funny moment at home Wednesday morning.
His wife, Claudia, was making breakfast for their son, Owen, when she finally saw the video clip of Coa taking the baseball off his helmet.
She had a question.
“Are you OK?” she said.
Owen had a laugh over it, too.
“When he saw the video,” Coa said, “he was like, ‘Dad, are you crazy? Do you think you play soccer or what?’”
It was another interesting moment in the life of the bullpen catcher. He’s been in the position for four years. Before this, he spent two seasons as the manager of a Yankees Dominican Summer League team, and as the club’s Dominican Republic academy complex coordinator. Coa also played five seasons in the minors, reaching Low A.
He said he loves working with pitchers, “knowing their routine, knowing what they’re working on, understanding movement. I love to understand that.”
And, apparently, Coa loves making a moment — even if it means taking a baseball off the head.
“I’m really happy,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve been talking about on the side for a while. It’s crazy that it happened and that I saw that chance. I mean, when was that going to happen again?”
