Jake Marisnick turns unique, unassisted double play from centerfield

There’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned double play to help a pitcher get out of an inning. Astros centrefielder Jake Marisnick helped out his pitcher on Thursday, but his double play was anything but run-of-the-mill.

In the fourth inning already trailing the Angels 1-0, Astros starter Colin McHugh gave up a single to Albert Pujols. That brought up Matt Joyce who hit a little flare to shallow center. Marisnick got on his horse and tracked it down for the second out. But meanwhile, Pujols, perhaps unaware of how many outs there were, had taken off and rounded second. He was easy pickings for a force out at first.

But rather than toss to ball in, Marisnick took it upon himself to run to first on his way to the dugout. It all ended up in a very rare, very odd unassisted double play by the centerfielder. (A very underrated part of the whole scene is Astros first baseman Chris Carter just pointing to first base as Marisnick runs it in.)

It turned out to be a big moment for the Astros, too. McHugh kept the Angels at bay over 7.1 innings and the American League-leading Astros rallied for three runs in the ninth inning for a 3-2 win. Thanks to defensive plays like this one by Marisnick, the Astros are 19-10 and one of the best stories of the early season.

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.