The White Sox turned the craziest triple play you’ll ever see
Ladies and gentlemen, take out your pencils and scorecards and please throw them in the nearest trashcan. You won’t be needing them, because what you’re going to witness here won’t make any more sense written down in baseball coding than it did to the naked eye.
In no uncertain terms, the Chicago White Sox turned the wildest, craziest and most bizarre triple play we’ve seen in a long time during Friday’s 5-0 win against the Rangers. It was a play that is, quite honestly, beyond description or explanation, but we’re going to do our very best to provide both.
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It happened in the seventh inning after Texas loaded the bases. Mitch Moreland hit a line drive to right field that Adam Eaton was able to snare for the first out. That was the easy part. From there, everything got a little more complicated and a lot more confusing, especially from the Rangers standpoint.
Upon Eaton’s return throw to the infield, Chicago lucked into the second out as Rangers baserunner Ian Desmond was caught too far off first base. Desmond, in his haste to return, avoided the initial tag attempt from Jose Abreu, but his momentum then carried him past the bag. Even still, Desmond wasn’t quite dead to rights. He avoided at least two more tag attempts before Abreu got him with a dive right at the base.
Where exactly Desmond thought he was going is a pretty good question. With the bases loaded and no outs, there’s no place for him to go unless the ball drops. Perhaps he was concerned about being forced out at second, but that would suggest a very poor read on his part. This liner had some steam on it and it was hooking toward the right field corner. He was really in no danger.
[Elsewhere: Jacoby Ellsbury stuns Rays with straight steal of home]
Whew, that part alone was exhausting.
Now, with Desmond out of the picture, the attention turned to notorious baserunner Prince Fielder, who was stationed on third base.
As the Desmond mess developed in front of him, Fielder took it upon himself to take a few short steps toward home, but it seems he had no real intention of coming home. Unfortunately, that’s not how Adrian Beltre read it. Beltre, who started the play at second base, broke when he saw Fielder break, and that led to quite a pickle that ultimately (and fittingly) ended with an exhausted Fielder being tagged out between third and home.
Disaster sounds about right, though whatever word Prince used would certainly give it more feeling.
By the way, for those who didn’t take our advice at the beginning, that would be scored 9-3-2-6-2-5. In the long history of baserunning, you’ll probably never find a bigger trainwreck at the major league level than this one. And the Rangers involved will have just as difficult a time living it down.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
