Carlos Ruiz gets fooled into a double play by some great acting

The Emmy Award nominations aren’t announced until July, but Atlanta Braves centerfielder Ender Inciarte might want to look for his name thanks to a top notch acting performance on Tuesday. During the Braves’ game against the Philadelphia Phillies, he actually faked his way into an inning-ending out.

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, catcher Carlos Ruiz was on first base with shortstop Freddie Galvis batting. Galvis skied a 1-0 pitch to centerfield, which is a pretty routine play for Inciarte. But he had something less routine in mind.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]

As the ball was coming down, Inciarte looked at the sky and held his arms out at his sides. To Ruiz, and to most viewers, it seemed like Inciarte was confused and had lost the ball in the lights or the sky. Since Ruiz thought that Inciarte couldn’t find the ball and it might drop untouched, he wandered farther off of first base.

That’s just what Inciarte hoped would happen. He hadn’t actually lost the ball, he was just pretending that he had to lure Ruiz too far from first base. Inciarte caught the fly ball for one out, and immediately hurled it toward first base. Freddie Freeman caught it and doubled off Ruiz, who hadn’t been able to make it back to first in time. The inning was over and so was the Phillies’ chance to score an insurance run.

Ruiz shouldn’t feel too badly about being fooled. He saw a chance to take an extra base on a possible error, and no one ever assumes that the opposing team’s outfielder is going to pull such a well-timed and resourceful fake-out. Despite Inciarte’s trickery, the Phillies won the game 3-2. But a play like that is definitely worth trying again.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports: