Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to recover from a set-back, to make good a disadvantage.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 218: This cat’s playin’ ketch-up and I got to tighten his wig.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 45: Of course the rescuers played catch-up for Otto in that all the Samoans [...] had to have buckets of water poured on them.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 302: It was hard to persuade them to persevere with one track, ‘Beautiful’, while other stations played catch-up.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 62: ‘I’m only playing catch-up with my in-tray’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 323: ‘I’m playing catch-up with Bobby’.