Triple plays are always cool, but the best instances are the ones that leave everyone—fielders, runners, fans, broadcasters—kind of confused about what exactly just happened. Last night’s Angels-Rangers game gave us one of those.
With the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fourth, David Fletcher scorched a ground ball to Jurickson Profar at third base, setting off one of the quickest, oddest triple plays you’ll ever see:
Things went haywire because the runner on third, Taylor Ward, initially thought Profar had caught the ball in the air and tried to stay on third. After realizing that the ball had been played on a hop and that Profar had stepped on third base to force one out, Ward just kind of wobbled towards home and allowed himself to be tagged out. Then Profar quickly tossed the ball to second and completed the triple play with another force out, but Rougned Odor, also confused about what was going on, ran down Kole Calhoun to tag him in the baseline, even though Calhoun was already out. And look at Profar after he throws to Odor—after seeing the runner from second, who was already out on the first force play, coming towards him he panics and calls for Odor to throw the ball back to him. Everyone was so confused!
With good reason, though. According to STATS, a triple play in which the batter was not retired hasn’t ocurred since June 3, 1912. Baseball: a pretty cool sport.