Reds fan instantly goes viral after Noelvi Marte makes season-saving catch

Noelvi Marte preserved the Cincinnati Reds' playoff chances with a game-saving catch during the top of the ninth inning on Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park. While Marte deserves the lion's share of the credit for making a spectacular grab, the Reds fan in the front row is worthy of some praise as well.

The Reds' social media team shared the image of Marte's unbelievable leaping grab at the wall to rob Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds of a game-tying home run. In the photo, you can see a Reds fan in front row obviously leaning back so as to allow Marte to make the catch.

FOX 19's Jeremy Rauch reposted the image with the caption, "Tonight at 10: local man backs away from ball so Noelvi Marte can make the play of the season." Interestingly enough, the Reds fan in the image responded to Rauch's repost with the message "Local fan here. Just got out of the way to let Marte cook. Now let’s play some October baseball!"

Reds fan instantly goes viral after Noelvi Marte makes season-saving catch

This Reds fan — @b_burch4 on X — is the anti-Bartman. Rather than taking home a souvenir, he stepped out of the way and allowed Marte to make the play of the year for the Reds. Well done. The fan later revealed in a comment that he plans to print the image and get Marte to autograph it at Redsfest.

The Reds were calling on Reds fans to #PackGABP all week, and it looks like they did just that. There was close to 30,000 fans in the stands on both Tuesday and Wednesday night, and just less than 25,000 in attendance for Cincinnati's home finale on Thursday afternoon. Heading into Thursday's series finale against the Pirates, 2,157,413 Reds fans showed up to GABP this season. That surpasses last year's mark of 2,024,178.

If the Reds hope to play in front of a home playoff crowd, not only will they have to overcome incredible odds just to get into the MLB Postseason, but they'll also have to dethrone the Los Angeles Dodgers during the NL Wild Card Series. All three games of the Wild Card Series are played at the home ballpark of the higher seeded team, and if Cincy gets into the mix, they'll be the No. 6 seed.

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