It was time for Jhonkensy Noel to get a pinch-hit at bat. And just as he had done the night before during Cleveland’s wild comeback victory in Game 4, more than 35,000 fans hoped to see Noel deliver a home run swing.

However, they found out that Big Christmas only happens once a year. If you’re lucky.

Noel held his ground on a Leiter sweeper before taking a curveball across the plate. Leiter’s third pitch was another sweeper, this time to the outside part of the plate that Noel swung at and launched into the air.

Fans rose from their seats as one and tried to get the ball over the wall in left field, but Noel had made contact too far at the end of the barrel. According to Statcast, the ball left the bat at 90 mph at a launch angle of 35 degrees. It carried 100 yards to the warning track on the left side, where Alex Verdugo ran over and made the catch.

Noel’s drive hung in the air for 4.8 seconds and allowed Verdugo to travel 25 yards to complete the catch. It had an expected batting average of .040 and a catch rate of 77%.

Considering what happened in Thursday’s wild affair, it was reasonable for fans to expect Noel’s second attempt at fate would yield similar results. But the Guardians slugger immediately knew he had missed his pitch.

“No, no, no,” Noel said. “I knew it was still a little too late.”

Manager Stephen Vogt watched the action closely and knew Noel had hit the ball from the end.

“I thought maybe he had enough to get it off the wall,” Vogt said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a homer. I thought it might end up in that slanted wall. Verdugo played a nice match. It looked like it was about five feet from the wall.”